When the Red Ajah Came
by Aderran
Summary: Set between the Trolloc Wars and Artur Hawkwing. Jed has held off the taint for years, longer than any man should. He has eluded capture since the day he first learned he could channel. But now the Red Ajah have caught up with him...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The Wheel of Time belongs to Robert Jordan, this is just a short story set 1,500 years or so earlier than his books. I used ideas and places from the Wheel of time, and even some names but some of the translations are mine.**

**If you could review this chapter and voice any opinions and ideas on anything that could be improved I would be immensely grateful. This is my first Fanfic and I'm quite nervous about what poeple might think. Please be truthful. Oh, and I could probably use some pointers on my disclaimers next time . . . new guy, remember?**

**When the Red Ajar came**

They came for him in the night, rapping him in flows of Air, cutting off his Link. He strained against the shield, harder and harder, feeling around the edges, the places where he felt softness. Seven points in the shield keeping him from the raging inferno that was _Saidin_. Somehow he knew that unless those points hardened, he was doomed.

One of the nine women looked down at him, an expression of hate and disgust on her ageless face. Her hair was long, to her waist and braided from her temples to the back of her head to form a single large braid hanging down to her waist. The style of her hair named her Rhamdasharan and her red shawl as an Aes Sedai of the Red Ajar, those sworn to hunt down men who can channel and bring them to the Tower to be severed from the True Source. The thought of being cut off from the source sent him into hysterics and he fought against the webs holding him and against the shield between him and _Saidin_.

"Filthy vermin!" one of the Aes Sedai said. "To think that this one actually believed he could elude us forever astounds me."

Jed stopped struggling for a moment, gathering his strength. He twisted his head, looking around him. There were seven sisters of the Red Ajar standing around him; he shivered, feeling the Goosebumps on his arms that had always been so useful before when the Aes Sedai came for him. The tall oak trees around him rustled in the light breeze, and to Jed, it felt as if they were leaning towards him as if to free him from his captors. He felt his strength return and with it came the Oneness. He imagined the flame and fed his emotions into it one-by-one, until only a void remained. There in the void he felt the light that was _Saidin_ calling to him and he yearned for its Power. Suddenly he threw himself at the shield, pounding it, smashing against it, bending it inward. He focused on the first point and poured his anger and desperation to reach the source into it, filling it with his rage. The shield wavered; suddenly the first point disappeared and one of the women collapsed to the ground.

The Aes Sedai gave a start, the Rhamdasharan standing over him looking over her shoulder at the one he had incapacitated.

"Alaria, do something! He came too close to breaking the shield that time," said another of the women, darting fearful looks in his direction.

The Rhamdasharan turned and smirked at him. Suddenly everything went black and Jed felt an enormous pressure smash into his temple. The last thing he heard as he fell into darkness was the scornful laughter of the woman who had called him vermin and the gasps of relief from the six women maintaining his shield.

Jed woke to the sound of hoof beats and the rocking motion of the cart he was lying in. Slowly he opened his eyes, careful not to make any sudden movements and hoping that the Reds thought him still asleep. He was lying at the foot of the cart, which looked new and sturdy, probably recently commandeered by the Sisters from some poor trader. The cart was being drawn by Jed's horse, Freedom; he still remembered the day he had named the horse five years before when he had stolen her from a Warder he had killed. To his left were four women on horses, wearing long cloaks over their silk riding gowns. Jed chuckled under his breath. On his right were another five women; four of them were wearing red shawls and the one remaining was wearing a green shawl draped over the shoulders of her cloak. One of the women on the right side of the cart was drooped over her saddle and looked to be unconscious. The others seemed to be trying to pretend that she didn't exist so there was no need for Jed to wonder what had happened to the Red Sister who had collapsed when he had tried to escape.

Carefully, he felt around the shield. Six points met him, all soft. Quietly he sighed; of course, they wouldn't be taking any chances with him now. He knew why there were only six women holding his shield and not eight. The Red Sister he had incapacitated Light-knows how many nights before, for he did not know how long he had slept, had been severed from _Saidar_ while the other two, most likely Alaria and the Green Sister, would be reserving their strength for the next time he tried to escape. He had hoped not to do it, but he had known for a long time that if a woman held his shield without tying off the web and he managed to break the shield then he risked slicing through her Link to the source as well.

_Saidin_ and _Saidar_ work together and against each other to turn the Wheel of Time; they could be used together but can never mix. When he had crushed her Link to the shield holding him prisoner he had, for the smallest moment, been able to touch the source and that flare of Power had sliced straight through her connection to _Saidar_.

The sound of voices brought Jed out of his deliberations and he focused on what the two Aes Sedai were saying.

"We should Gentle him right here Alaria," said one of the women to the right of the cart. Jed stiffened slightly at the thought of being severed here, but then he relaxed. By Tower Law they couldn't; they would be punished severely for severing him without a Trial in the White Tower. He recognised the voice as the one who had called him vermin the night he was captured.

"No, Katerine," Alaria replied. "He will be escorted to the Tower where he will be tried and judged before the Hall of the Tower, as is the law."

"But he Stilled Namelle, Alaria! Stilled her!" Katerine replied with horror in her voice. "He must be punished." Jed turned his head an inch to the right and opened his eyes a crack so as to see what this Katerine looked like.

She had long black hair and blue eyes set in a pale face. She was not especially beautiful but she could have been if she did not look as though she were always sneering. Jed decided that she would be trouble. Something about her made him more unease than he would otherwise have been for any Aes Sedai, even Reds. There was a shadowed look in her eyes, as if she had spent a week in the Great Blight fighting Trollocs.

Alaria sighed as the other Red Sisters murmured agreement. She closed her eyes and spoke quietly through her teeth. "Very well, punish him; but do not gentle him or leave any visible marks. I want him in reasonable health for when we reach the Tower."

Jed squeezed his eyes shut and prayed to the Creator that his chance would come soon. Why, oh why had he not masked his ability to channel and inverted his webs the night of the attack.

"Salarme, you are the most accomplished Healer among us. I want you to Heal him every night and every morning, but only enough that there will be no bruises. He must feel the pain of what he has done to Namelle Sedai." Alaria nodded her head in satisfaction and turned back to the path ahead, while Katerine smiled with anticipation.

She turned to Jed and suddenly he felt Goosebumps on his arms at the same time as dozens of invisible whips lashed at his body. He cried out in pain and assumed the Oneness, where the pain seemed to be that of another's. Katerine had smirked when he first cried out and so had a few of the other women, but her smile disappeared when his cries stopped. Jed had learned an important lesson the first time he had been captured by Aes Sedai; showing defiance will only encourage his captors to try harder, submission will only show them that they are getting to him, but showing no emotion at all...? That will unsettle them. The first time he had been captured he had retreated deep into the void, so deep in fact that he had not even felt the webs of Air beating him over and over. The Red Ajar did like to beat their prisoners, whether they fought back or not.

So Jed retreated deeper into the Void, all the while staring Katerine in the eyes. She must have noticed the increasingly neutral look in his eyes, because she increased the speed and strength of the beating. Soon Jed could see a fine sheen of sweat on her face and an uneasy cast to her eyes; they could not seem to break away from his own eyes as they stared at one another. Suddenly Jed heard a shout of alarm, but he continued staring into Katerine's face, ignoring the cries from the other Sisters. There was only him and Katerine, and the fear in her eyes as his bore into them. From far away he heard a voice shout out:

"Stop Katerine, you're going to kill him!" Alaria screamed. "Stop now!"

Katerine suddenly broke away from his gaze, spinning to stare wide-eyed at Alaria. Jed turned his stare on Alaria also and as the beatings stopped, he instinctively released the Void. Suddenly he could feel pain, blinding agony across every square-inch of his body. He did not even have time to blink before the world faded around him and he fell gratefully into blackness.

Jed woke to the sound of quiet voices and the crackling of a fire. When he opened his eyes he was greeted by the sight of six figures sitting at various positions around a small opening in the trees. In the distance he could see the road through the tall trunks of the trees. There was another figure five paces away from him; the other Sisters avoided the figure as they moved around the camp. Jed guessed that this was the woman he had severed. He felt a pang of guilt as he gazed at her shuddering form and heard her quiet moans.

The pain from his beating had disappeared except for an ache in his legs. He guessed that they didn't want him running far if he managed to get away from the group because his legs felt as if he'd been running all day already. He wasn't bound in any way that he could tell but he was sure that there were shields around the camp to stop him from getting away, or at least a couple of wards to warn the Sisters if he tried to escape. Salarme obviously hadn't fully healed him, just as Alaria had ordered. Slowly he sat up, groaning when his muscles protested. Movement in the clearing suddenly ceased as all eyes turned to him as he sat there.

"What?" he said to his silent audience. "You did not really believe that I would go quietly did you?"

One of the women sniffed, a few of the others giving him dirty looks and glancing uneasily at Namelle who had stopped crying and was staring at him with anger and despair in her features. Again he felt his heart lurch with pity, and a fair amount of fear. '_This is my fate'_ he thought as he gazed at her. '_No; I will not give in_.'

There was a small cauldron hanging in the air over the fire, bubbling slowly. Jed could smell the scent of rabbit and his stomach growled loudly. One of the women looked over at him and whispered something to Alaria who nodded. The Aes Sedai took a fair-sized bowl from a pack and filled it with stew from the cauldron before standing and bringing it to Jed. She knelt down in front of him and gave him the bowl along with a small iron spoon for him to eat with. He looked at her gratefully before attacking the meal with a vengeance.

The Aes Sedai was young, he noticed. He examined her closely while he was eating and took note of the green shawl wrapped around her shoulders. So, she was the Green Sister who had joined the hunt for him in the last village. He looked at her face and his eyes widened slightly. This one was very young; she did not yet have the ageless face of those who trained in the White Tower and neither had she yet perfected the Aes Sedai way of hiding their emotions behind cold features. She was nervous and slightly afraid, he could tell that much though she hid it well. She could not be past her twenty-fifth year, even if she had begun to slow. She must have been in the Borderlands searching for a potential Warder.

"You should not speak to Aes Sedai in that manner, boy, especially not to aggravate them," the woman said once he had finished the stew. Jed laughed quietly, though not enough that she did not hear it.

"Do you think I jest with you, child? Twice now the Reds have knocked you unconscious. Do you even know how long it has been since your capture?" She glared at him, red flushing her cheeks with anger. She was very attractive, beautiful even, with long auburn hair that fell in waves down her back and over her shoulders, ivory skin and deep green eyes. She was also tall, almost as tall as him, with full lips and a generous bosom, nice hips and legs that seemed to go all the way up.

"What is your name _Al'sieta Sedai_?" Jed asked her.


	2. Chapter 2

The Green Sister blinked in surprise; then her features hardened and she opened her mouth angrily.

"Do not change the subject, boy, answer my question! Do you know how long it has been since your capture?"

The Green waited expectantly, a slight frown on her face. Jed stopped eating and frowned thoughtfully. He did not, he realised. It could have been days, maybe even a week since his capture, although since he had been Healed it was impossible to tell from his hunger roughly how long.

He really did want to know how long it had been, how much closer to Tar Valon the group was, and especially he wanted to know which route they had taken. Suddenly he had an idea. Something must have shown on his face because the Green's features immediately became guarded and she took on a wary stance. No doubt she was holding the Power, waiting for him to try something. Since three of the Reds were holding his shield he could not be certain. His arms were alight with goose bumps.

"I will answer any question you ask of me _Al'sieta Sedai_, if you will but answer a question of mine in return," Jed said.

"I know you cannot lie, so I will have your oath that you will answer a question of mine if I answer one of yours. If you will not give me your oath, well then, this will be a very quiet journey. No doubt you have many questions; only the Red Ajah cares less than nothing for men of my kind."

He waited, watching the Green Sister silently while he finished his meal and placed the empty bowl and spoon on the grass. While she contemplated his offer, Jed carefully examined the camp and its occupants. The moon was up and there were few clouds drifting across the sky. He could not see any stars. The trees around him were oak and the horses and cart were tethered at the edge of the clearing. Beyond them was the road, just visible through the trees. Alaria was sitting on the other side of the fire to Jed, deep in conversation with Katerine and another of the women. Salarme, the Red who had Healed him, was asleep to his left, no doubt weary from Healing Jed. Namelle was huddled among the roots of one of the gnarled oaks, as far from the other Aes Sedai as she could get while still in the camp. The last three were sitting in a line ten paces from him with their legs crossed and their eyes trained on him. All had the ageless face and two had grey hair, a sign of great age among their kind. Those two were probably over a hundred and fifty years old.

The Green stirred and his attention was back on her. She looked up from her deliberation and met his eyes, not without a little fear in them.

"I accept your terms and I swear under the Light and by my hope of salvation and rebirth that if it does not concern ways to escape us I will answer a question of yours if you will answer one of mine." She grimaced slightly and suddenly glared at him.

"There," she said, "does that satisfy you?"

Jed sighed gratefully. He had not really believed she would do it. She really must be new to the shawl if she was willing to swear an oath to him. He shook his head slightly and smiled. She was still naive to the ways of the world.

"Yes, thank you. Now, about that name?" he said.

"Not so fast," she said quickly. "I get the first question, remember?"

Jed cursed under his breath.

"So you do, _Al'sieta Sedai_. Ask your question."

She smiled, and opened her mouth to speak when Jed suddenly interrupted her.

"I do not know how long it has been since the night of my capture. I remember awakening to find myself in a cart and Alaria giving Katerine permission to beat me as punishment for severing Namelle from _saidar_."

Jed stopped and smirked at the look of outrage on the Green Sister's face.

"You asked, Al'sieta Sedai, and I answered."

"Now, your name is...?" he trailed off, waiting.

The Green sniffed loudly, drawing the attention of the three holding Jed's shield.

"Rashelle Damroden, but to you I am Rashelle Sedai." She glared at him in a 'you-will-call-me-Sedai' way and Jed found himself smiling.

"Rashelle. A beautiful name. A beautiful woman," he said, looking at her.

Rashelle Sedai blushed and glared at him again.

"Your question, Rashelle _Sedai_," he said, sneering slightly. He could not stand those who claimed a title they had no right to.

"How long have you been fleeing the Red Ajah, she asked him. "They will not tell me," she said, gesturing to the women sitting around the fire.

Jed sat quietly for a minute, wondering whether he should tell her how long he had been running from this group of Reds instead of all of them. _She asked you how long you had been running from the _Ajah_, not this particular group._ Jed sighed. He could not reveal that, not yet.

"I have been fleeing _them,_" he pointed at the Reds, "for about six months. They found me after I stopped a Trolloc Raid on a town in northern Basharande. I have travelled since I found out what I am. I stopped in the town to buy supplies and rest for a few days. As you could probably understand, I try to stay away from people as much as possible."

Rashelle Sedai grimaced and averted her eyes from his at that. He smiled grimly and looked away, at the surrounding forest. He was considering his next question when something flickered at the edge of his vision, drawing his gaze to the sky above. Against the deep purple of the night sky through a gap in the clouds Jed thought he saw a blacker shape moving out of sight above them.

"What is it?" Rashelle asked, following his gaze.

Jed frowned for a moment, staring at the sky, and then said "Nothing. Probably nothing." He hoped he was seeing things, but grimaced. Actually maybe it would be better if he hadn't been seeing things. He hadn't gone mad yet and he didn't intend to start now, especially when he could not channel.

"It is my turn, I believe," he said, turning back to the Al'sieta Sedai.

"Very well," she sniffed, shifting to get more comfortable.

He opened his mouth to ask her what would happen to him after he was...well, after it happened, when he realised that what he really wanted to know was where they were in relation to where they'd been when he was captured.

"Where are we?" he asked.

She considered him for a moment, eyes narrowed.

"We have almost reached the border with Elsalam. In fact, we'll be crossing the border in just under a week, maybe eight or nine days from now." She sat back and Jed groaned.

_Brilliant,_ he thought. Jed felt both relief and despair at the thought. On the one hand they were still many hundreds of leagues from Tar Valon, but on the other there were still over two months of morning and evening beatings waiting for him unless he managed to either convince them to stop or escape before then.

Rashelle yawned behind her hand and blinked sleepily.

"I suppose that is enough questions for today. I will need to rest to be prepared for Katerine tomorrow," he said, jabbing a finger in the spiteful woman's direction before standing and stretching his legs.

Rashelle looked up at him a moment, then asked, "Why do you call us Al'sieta Sedai?" in a curiously mild voice.

Alaria and the others stopped talking and looked over at him. Jed considered them for a moment before answering.

"Because you are 'Servants of the Tower', you put the Tower before the world and the people you claim to serve."

"How dare you!" one the Reds hissed at him, her face as red as her shawl with anger. Alaria was looking at him as though he had suddenly sprouted horns like a Trolloc and the rest were glaring at him and most likely full to the point of pain with _saidar_. He shifted uneasily under their glares but stood tall. "We are the reason the world has not fallen apart by now," she spat at him.

"And you are?" he said, looking at her.

She stiffened at his cold tone but answered, "Rhemala _Aes Sedai,_ of the Red Ajah". She tossed her hair over her shoulder and started at him proudly.

He snorted and looked pointedly at her shawl. "Thank you so much for pointing that out to me, _Red!_ I am sure I would never have been able to work that out for myself."

She opened her mouth to retort but Alaria held up a hand to forestall her. Rhemala settled for a stubborn glare.

"As Rhemala so kindly asked, I dare because I was born in the Land between the Two Rivers, in Aemon's Field."

Before he could see more than their outraged features melt into shock, Jed firmly turned his backs on them and lay down under a tree at the edge of the clearing. Before he fell asleep he heard their muttered whispers and the eyes of Namelle staring at him from her huddled spot under the oak.

Fgfgfgfgg hffgbbg

Jed walked around the campsite, examining the smouldering remains of the cook fire, the wagon at the edge of the clearing and the occasional flashes of blankets as they blinked in and out of existence. The trees swayed in a non-existent wind, their leaves rustling. Jed sighed, and turned towards the road.  
>In a flash he was there, looking back through the trees at the campsite. He turned and began running. Within a matter of days the party would reach the border. He did not yet know which route the Al'sieta Sedai had taken but there should be a village or at least a town on the edge of the country. The scenery around him sped to a blur racing behind him as Jed ran. There; suddenly a town appeared before him and he stopped, not even out of breath. This place, whatever it was, allowed Jed to do things he could never do when he was awake. He did not know whether it was a Talent or madness but he used it as he would a horse or a map.<p>

Jed smiled as he looked on the town. It was Jaroncen, the border town between Basharande and Elsalam. That must mean that the party escorting him to Tar Valon was taking the great Border Road that spanned the entire length of the borderlands, from World's End to the Niamh Pass in the Spine of the World. If he was right then the Reds were planning on taking him along the Border Road until they reached the river Erinin and then by ship down to Tar Valon. He would have to make his escape either along the Border Road or somewhere along the Erinin. As long as they were on land he had a better chance of escaping alive but they could still follow him more easily than on the water. If he managed to escape along the river then he would have to swim to shore and would be exhausted if they found him.

Jed caught sight of someone moving further down the street. It was a woman; she looked to be in her middle years and was dressed extravagantly in a beautiful green dress. She saw him and smiled, making her way to him down the street. Just as she opened her mouth, probably to greet him, she vanished. Jed had noticed other people here before but he had never seen them up close. He did not believe he could have imagined that woman and he had certainly never met her before which meant that wherever this place was it was not a figment of his imagination. Jed shrugged and turned to leave, making his way back to the clearing and his body. He supposed he could leave this place from wherever he happened to be but did not want to take the risk of not making it back to his body in the waking world so preferred to step out of this world where he stepped in. Jed had noticed before that whenever he spent all night in this world he was always tired when he woke up and that whenever he hurt himself here, the injury was there when he woke. Foolishly, years ago he had decided to explore the Aiel Waste while asleep and had gone to the entrance of the Jangai Pass, as far as he'd ever gone in the waking world to entering the Waste. From the Jangai he'd run into the waste within a matter of minutes and travelled east in the direction of the fabled Cliffs of Dawn and the land of Shara. He had stopped somewhere in the middle of the waste when he thought he saw a figure in the distance wearing a brown dress. The next thing he knew something had smacked him in the side of the head and he'd fled back to his body in Hai Caemlyn with a voice yelling after him '_do not enter this place, boy!'_ He still did not know whether that woman had meant for him to stay out of the waste or to stay out of this world.

Jed chuckled as he stopped in the clearing. He looked at the cart and noticed again the absence of the horses. He had seen other animals here, bears, wolves, foxes and predators but he had never seen any domesticated creatures, none at all. He was just about to step out of this world when he felt it. Even here he could feel the shield between himself and _saidin_ but now there was something else. His shoulders itched and he felt uncomfortable, like something was watching him. Jed turned and gasped, a sword appearing in his hands and his clothes replaced by armour. A woman was standing before him, with startling red hair and green eyes that pierced him. She was tall, as tall as him, wearing a brown and grey dress with a shawl across her shoulders. Suddenly Jed realised he recognised her; this was the Aiel woman who had given him that black eye and sent him running for his body ten years ago! She looked as shocked as he when she saw his face.

"You!" she shouted, taking a step toward him. "Where am I, wetlander? Where have you brought me?" She was speaking in the Old Tongue. Jed jumped back a step in surprise, then, angry at his own cowardice and her for sneaking up on him, '_Come to think of it,'_ he thought, _'_and_ the black eye!' _Jed stepped forward and glared right back at her.

"Me?" he shouted. "What about you sneaking up on me like a thief and scaring me like that? And what do you mean by saying _I_ brought _you_ here?"

The Aiel woman looked startled for a moment. The she stepped back and looked at him again, eyeing him up and down like he was a sheep at the market. Her eyes widened slightly, and then narrowed. "Ten years" she muttered to herself, "ten years and he hasn't aged a day."

Jed heard, and gulped silently. If this was a place where others could go then he could probably enter because of his ability to channel, and that meant that she could probably channel as well. Jed didn't know what the Aiel did with those who could channel, and Jed had no doubt there were men among them who could touch _saidin_ but from all the stories he'd heard of Aiel fierceness she would probably kill him in an instant, right here. Jed wondered for a brief moment whether his dying here would kill his body or whether it would simply remain an empty shell until the Al'sieta Sedai attempted to wake him.

When Jed had first learned he could channel he had been in despair, but resolved to learn to control _saidin_ and avoid madness for as long as he could rather than go to the Tower and it's treacherous witches. Five hundred years may have passed since the end of the Trolloc Wars but the people of the Land between Two Rivers remembered well the Betrayal of Manetheren. None of the new nations that had risen in the last half-millennium trusted those who called themselves Aes Sedai as the Ten Nations once did. Now the Ten Nations and its compact had shattered, and Tar Valon was one of the last Ogier-built cities in the world, and definitely now the most beautiful since Manetheren had been destroyed.

"There have never been more than three or four among us who can enter the World of Dreams without aid, wetlander, but the last time a man was found who could was over a thousand years ago." The Aiel's voice brought Jed out of his thoughts. World of Dreams? That must be the name for this place then. He had to admit, it did seem to fit since he could only come here when he was sleeping.

Jed looked at her before answering. "World of Dreams? Who are you, and why are you here? I never expected to see you again after the black eye you gave me."

The Aiel woman laughed, as if he'd told a great joke. He didn't think it was very funny.

"You entered the Three-fold Land without permission, wetlander, and you were neither bard nor trader," she said with a frown, but her pressed lips betrayed her amusement. "Now, why have you brought me here?" she asked.

"I did not!" Jed insisted, before he could hold his tongue.

"Of course you did, otherwise I would not be here." She looked at him curiously. "Do you believe I would come to this place of my own will..." she trailed off, frowning in thought.

"What were you thinking of before I appeared, wetlander?" she asked quickly, looking at him intently.

Jed thought back, rummaging through his earlier thoughts. Then he gave a start, his eyes widening. The Aiel woman noticed this and nodded to herself. "You were thinking of me, were you not?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," he said wonderingly. How could his thinking of her bring him here?

The woman groaned when he answered, and started muttering to herself, too quietly for him to understand more than a few words. 'Foolish' and 'wetlander' seemed to come up more than once.

"Um, not that I mean to be rude, but who...?" he gestured to her. She glared at him, then calmed before answering.

"I am Sarendhra of the Haido Sept of the Shaarad Aiel. I am a Wise One for my people and also a Dreamwalker," she stated, looking at him expectantly. What did she want now..._'Oh'_.

"My name is Jedwyn of Aemon's Field in the Land between Two Rivers." He hoped that would be enough. "Wise One; is that something like a village Wisdom?" he asked. "And what is a Dreamwalker?"

"You do not know?" she asked in surprise. She looked at him curiously for a moment. "The Servants of All, they do not gather people with Talents to them for training?"

"Hardly," Jed laughed. "If a woman wants to be a Servant she has to go to the Tower, and they never go looking for women who cannot channel the One Power. As for me, I am a man, and any man who shows unusual talents is taken to the Tower to be severed, whether he can channel the Power or not." Jed paused. "You mentioned you were a, what was it...dreamwalker? Is that what this place is then; a dream?"

Sarendhra spoke, "I was hunting nightmares near the Jangai Pass when I recalled the time I chased a male wetlander dreamwalker from the Three-fold Land. The next I knew I was standing here and you were laughing with your back turned to me."

"Oh, I was thinking of you at the same moment you thought of me. This place is truly strange indeed," Jed replied, looking around him with new respect in his eyes.

"Wetlanders," she muttered. "It seems that you and I are bound to each other, Jedwyn of the Two Rivers and Aemon's..." her eyes widened. "You are of Manetheren!" she whispered in awe.

"Yes, I suppose I am," he said, frowning, "though there has not been a Manetheren for over five hundred years now. What does it matter to you?" he asked.

Sarendhra sat down on the grass, looking up at him with an eyebrow raised. Jed rolled his eyes and muttered about women being the same wherever he went as he also sat. "Well," he asked.

"Of all the wetlands, the people of Manetheren and their descendants and those who gave us water before we found the Three-fold Land have our respect. We do not know who gave us water in the upheaval, or the Breaking as it is known here, but we will find them one day." She looked happy at the thought.

"Stories of the bravery of Manetheren had come to us during the war. We had already suffered an attack by the shadowmen and their creatures at the time but we are not wetlanders, defending our own Holds before our people. Those traders and bards who come through the Three-Fold-Land believe we drove the armies of the shadow back into the Blighted Lands. We didn't. We left none alive to flee back to their wastes in the north," Sarendhra said proudly, lifting her chin and staring at him like a queen. "When we heard of the shadow's attack on the wetlands we came together to discuss our next course of action but we do not believe in helping those who cannot help themselves. It was only later, after the fall of...Aridhol..." she stumbled over that name, "that we heard of Manetheren and its armies victories across the wetlands. We came to respect your people though we did not know them. When our Wise Ones heard of Sightblinder's armies gathering for a direct attack on Manetheren while your armies were elsewhere we decided to send the spears though these Waygates of yours along with the Ogier garrisons. Three clans, the Taardad, the Shaarad and the Tomanelle would have come to your aid after armies from other wetlander nations had reached you, but by the time we reached the Jangai pass word arrived from _stedding_ Shangtai that you had fallen and that Manetheren was gone." She paused for breath and suddenly a cup of...something, appeared in her hands. Jed gave a start when it appeared and Sarendhra drank with a smile in her eyes.

"Tell me, Jedwyn, because we do not know, why the remaining nations of the so-called Compact of the Ten Nations didn't send reinforcements to aid you?" she asked curiously.

Jed snorted angrily, and then said, "The so-called Servants of All diverted the armies sent by Manetheren's allies, telling them that Tar Valon was sending reinforcements and their armies were needed elsewhere."

Sarendhra frowned. "But no reinforcements arrived. Was the Servants army too late to aid you?"

"No," he said. "There was no army coming to aid my ancestors. " Sarendhra's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she opened her mouth to speak but Jed forestalled her.

"The Amyrlin Seat at the time was jealous of Manetheren's Queen because she was a more powerful channeller, she was both Aes Sedai and queen to the most powerful and respected nation in the westlands and because everybody loved her. She was known as the Rose of the Sun by my ancestors and many others." Jed paused, glowering angrily around the campsite, imagining the Al'sieta Sedai all around him in the real world right now, thinking themselves so smart and so above the rest of humanity.

"The clan chiefs and my fellow Wise Ones must hear of this." She stopped and looked at him carefully for a moment. "I feel I can trust you, Jedwyn. We, the Aiel, served the Aes Sedai once, before the upheaval, and we failed them in that service. If we fail them again we believe they will destroy us. That is what we have believed, have known, since we came to the Three-fold Land."

Jed snorted. "Before the Breaking the Aes Sedai would not have killed you for any mistakes you might have made, but I would be surprised if the Al'sieta Sedai of the Tower even remember that you apparently once served them. They are not who they once were."

Sarendhra sat quietly for a few minutes. Jed looked around wondering again at how he was supposed to escape the Al'sieta Sedai here along the road or at the river.

"You must come to me at Bent Valley Hold, Jedwyn," she said. "The other dreamwalkers will listen to me, but others among us may question what you have told me and the clan chiefs, stubborn as they are, will need you to confirm that the Aes Sedai are not what they once were." She paused, thinking. "And you will need training," she finished, nodding to herself thoughtfully.

"Training," Jed asked in surprise, "for what?"

Sarendhra smiled at him, and then laughed, slapping her hands against her thighs in amusement.

"I am going to train you as a dreamwalker, Jedwyn," she said, still beaming with humour.

"And this is amusing...?" he said.

"Yes, because no man has ever been trained for this before and no man can become a Wise One. It will be interesting to see what the others think of this," she said. Jed had no idea what he being taught how to control this place had to do with being a Wise One but then, Aiel were said to have a very strange sense of humour.

"Wait, you said that I have to come to you." Jed thought on his current predicament and decided that now might not be the best time for him to tell her that he was being transported to Tar Valon to be severed. "Can you not simply teach me at night, here while we are sleeping?" he asked.

"No," Sarendhra said firmly, all humour gone from her eyes. "It would be dangerous, not only for me but for you as well, especially since our bodies are so far apart. I cannot wake you if you become trapped in some way here if your body is not near mine in the waking world." Jed nodded in understanding.

"Then I will come to you," he said. "It may take me a while but I will find a way."

"Where are you now?" she asked.

"In the borderlands, in Basharande and I have almost reached the border with Elsalam."

"Good," she said. "I will pass your description to Torrel, clan chief of the Shaarad with instructions that you be given escort to Bent Valley Hold when you reach Niamh Pass."

"Very well," Jed said, "but will you also send someone to the Jangai Pass? I may come that way if I am unable to leave the group before we reach the river Erinin." Jed prayed to the Creator that he was able to leave the 'group' before they reached Tar Valon.

Sarendhra nodded and was about to speak again when Jed suddenly felt a pulling inside him.

"Wait!" Sarendhra shouted. "Do not go yet, we have more to discuss!"

Then she stopped speaking. Jed thought she felt it at the same time he did, a slick, oily feeling, as if he had just stepped into the blight. Then Sarendhra and the World of Dreams vanished.

Fdgh vth nf gfhfghfgh

Jed woke to the sound of screaming and light blazing everywhere. He looked up in a daze and saw Rashelle standing over him, throwing fireballs into the surrounding trees and Namelle shaking him roughly and looking wide-eyed around them. Suddenly there was a flash of light followed by an enormous crash of noise and something burst into flames high above the campsite.

Jed jumped up and instinctively reached for the Source. He ran straight into the shield and cursed, looking wildly around him. The Al'sieta Sedai were in a circle around him, the two keeping his shield in place staring into the trees while keeping one eye on him and the rest throwing fireballs into the forest and setting trees alight. Illuminated in the trees around them, dozens of large misshapen shadows roared and swarmed towards them. Jed cursed and looked around for his sword. A hand clutching his heron-mark blade was thrust into his chest. He grabbed for the sword and looked up in time to meet Namelle's eyes. He nodded to her but she only looked at him, fear and pain and loss painted across her features. Another crash brought Jed back to his senses and he looked up in time to see Rashelle throw a fireball straight into the face of a great, bearlike trolloc. It collapsed bellowing to the ground and lay there thrashing for a moment before the flames consumed the flesh of its head. The smell of burning flesh and wood was everywhere, lightning flashing down from the sky and the Al'sieta Sedai fighting with grim determination. Suddenly a black shape snaked its way into the clearing, smoothly dodging a fireball thrown by one of the Reds and hurled itself at her. Its cowl slipped and Jed caught a glimpse of its pale, maggot-like skin a moment before he threw himself between the myrdraal and its intended pray. His power-wrought sword left its sheath and met the black, Thakan'dar blade of the halfman in a flash of blue light.


	3. Chapter 3

Jed's sword rebounded from that of the myrddraal and he swiftly brought it round in an arc, aiming for its neck. The myrddraal moved like lightning, its black sword flashing up to meet Jed's in the light of the fires. The two swords met in another flash of blue light and Jed jumped back, putting himself between the myrddraal and the Red sister. The shadowspawn faced him, eyeless gaze piercing Jed's eyes and filling him with an unnatural urge to flee screaming, as far from that pale face as he could run. Jed instinctively slipped into the void, leaving fear, anger and the sounds of battle outside the bubble. Within, he could feel the glow of _saidin_ beckoning to him and Jed yearned to grasp it and burn this abomination from existence. The myrddraal seemed to sense the change in Jed, the lack of fear. It snarled and brought its sword down on Jed's head. Jed parried with _The Boar Rushes Downhill_ and retaliated with the move's offensive twin _Boar Rushes down the Mountain_, dealing several aggressive overhead strikes before slipping under the black sword as the myrddraal attempted to relieve his head from his shoulders. Jed dropped to one knee and twisted, his back facing the myrddraal as he stabbed back and up in the form _Kissing the Adder_, his blade stabbing the myrddraal in the chest. The creature screamed, the sound of its voice lifting the hairs on Jed's neck. It was undoubtedly dead but would not admit it until the setting of the sun, so Jed jumped forward, spinning and performed _Plucking the Low-Hanging Apple_, slicing the myrddraal's head neatly from its shoulders. The headless body staggered blindly forward, hacking at the air in an attempt to reach Jed. He easily avoided one the corpse's swings and quickly sliced through the back of the myrddraal's knees, bringing it down and then proceeded to cut off its arms at the elbow.

Jed wasted no time; the sound of shrieking reached his ears in the void and Jed looked up to see dozens of trollocs on the ground, thrashing wildly, and more charging towards him through the trees, another halfman urging them on. The Al'sieta Sedai were busy elsewhere, huddled in a group thirty paces away, but standing behind Jed were the two Reds holding on to his shield with their backs against a tree, looking terrified. Jed could imagine what they were feeling; they were being attacked by a trolloc raiding party and could do nothing with the Power unless they let go of his shield and so were completely defenceless but they could not let go of his shield because in their eyes he was a dreaded male channeller and, to the Red Ajah at least, was worse than anything the shadow could throw at them excepting a dreadlord or the forsaken themselves. Rashelle was standing before them, ready to defend against any attack, and next to her was Namelle, holding Jed's twin shortswords and looking determined. He could see no fear in her eyes, and could not decide whether that was a good thing or not. Jed turned back to the shadowspawn, taking the sword in both hands. He could not let them die, burn him.

As the creatures closed on him, Jed flew forward, _Lizard in the Thornbush_ slicing through his opponents. He jumped up from one knee and quickly severed the third trolloc's head, its eagle beak snarling at him as it tumbled away into the bushes. Jed jumped back as the fourth trolloc hurled a barbed spear at him. Letting go of his sword with one hand he snagged the spear from the air and using its momentum spun around and rammed it into the trolloc's stomach just as the creature was about to crash into him. Jed heaved forward on the spear with one hand as he severed the trolloc's sword-arm, pushing the trolloc back into the myrddraal. The halfman stumbled under the weight of the trolloc and shoved the dying creature off it in time to raise its black sword to deflect Jed's strike to its head. Jed's arms jarred when the two swords met and, through pure luck, the black sword was knocked less than a hands-breadth from the top of his head. The myrddraal was not so lucky. Jed's sword cut down through its torso, almost cleaving it in two. The myrddraal screeched in pain and rage and struck Jed with its fist. Jed fell, slashing wildly at the creature's legs. He missed, and the myrddraal, one hand holding its innards in, raised its sword to finish him. Suddenly one of Jed's shortswords appeared in the creature's shoulder, causing it to drop its blade. The blade fell toward Jed's chest and he rolled out of the way as it hit the grass, feeling a slight sting as it scratched his shoulder. Jed looked up in time to see the myrddraal and two trollocs standing over him burst into flames. The heat washed over him and he staggered to his feet, moving away from the flames. Jed looked around. The Al'sieta Sedai were still huddled in their group at the edge of the clearing, a crowd of trollocs still attempting to reach them. Obviously the stupid creatures hadn't realised that both myrddraal were now dead. There were still more trollocs scattered around the clearing thrashing and clutching their heads on the ground. They must have been the ones Linked to that first myrddraal. There was a growing numbness in Jed's shoulder and the rest of him felt exhausted. He didn't think he would get far if he ran tonight, whether he managed to escape Rashelle anyway.

He turned his head to look at her. She was busy tending to Namelle, who seemed to have cut herself with his other sword. She must have thrown the first. A risky move; she might have hit him, but maybe that wouldn't have seemed such a bad thing to her, or even to the others. Jed retrieved his blade from the grass and sheathed it. He looked to the myrddraal. His shortsword was still in its shoulder where Namelle had thrown it. He walked over to the smouldering remains and yanked the sword out. It was slightly burned at the end but nothing a good oiling and sharpening wouldn't fix. Jed walked over to the tree where Rashelle had just finished Healing Namelle's wound. The two Reds holding his shield looked up at him fearfully, but he just put the shortsword on the grass next to Namelle.

"Here," he said, looking at her. "I've taken something from you which can never be replaced and for that I am sorry, but perhaps I can begin to make amends for my actions." He gestured to the two swords.

"If you would like I can teach you how to use those properly, then maybe you won't feel helpless the next time we are attacked." Jed didn't know what had made him say that but he couldn't take it back now. Namelle looked up at him, angrily wiping away tears from her face.

"I wouldn't have needed it if you hadn't...had..." she broke down, sobbing into her hands. One of the two Reds holding his shield glared up at him but made no move toward comforting her former Sister. Rashelle glared right back at the Red as she patted Namelle's shoulder and whispered comforting words to her. She then stood and faced Jed.

"You fight well, Jed," she said, before looking over at the other Al'sieta Sedai. "Perhaps you could put those sword-skills to use once again," she nodded toward the fighting still going on. Jed looked at the Reds. The trollocs were almost all dead, dying or running. Besides, he didn't feel much like aiding Alaria or Katerine. And not that other Red he had saved, either. The brunet Red was huddled in the middle of the group, not even fighting.

"What a coward," he said, nodding towards her. Rashelle nodded for a moment before catching herself.

"Her name is Elena," Rashelle said, sounding disgruntled. "She came to the Tower to learn when she was twelve, the youngest Novice taken in since the end of the Trolloc Wars. She's been Aes Sedai for fifty years and this is the first time she's left the Tower since she was raised." Rashelle looked at Jed with what looked like disappointment. "Weren't you scared and nervous the first time you left your village?" she asked.

Jed thought before answering. "Yes," he said, "but I was not so scared that I would not aid somebody who saved my life. Or is it that I am a man, and saving my life is beneath her?" he asked. The last of the trollocs had disappeared into the trees and Jed was surprised to see another myrddraal thrashing on the ground behind Alaria. It looked as if she had been torturing it. There were grooves and cuts all over its face and where the eyes should have been were two bleeding holes. Someone had cut eye sockets into the myrddraal's face. Jed's eyebrows lifted in surprise, and Rashelle looked at the halfman.

"Questioning it before they killed it," she said offhandedly.

"Why," he asked.

"To find out what it was doing this far south, of course," she said, frowning at him.

"I should think that was obvious without needing to put shadowspawn to the question," he laughed.

Rashelle and the other three women looked at him questioningly. Jed sighed.

"The raiding party has probably been shadowing us since you captured me, maybe following you since you left Garadrin," he said. Their eyebrows shot up in surprise and one of the Reds holding his shield said incredulously, "A trolloc raiding party following us?"

"Nine Al'sieta Sedai tracking a man who can channel across the borderlands," Jed said. "Imagine what a blow it would be to the White Tower if they had managed to kill you all." Jed thought they would have guessed this themselves, but Al'sieta Sedai were always full of themselves and probably thought that the trollocs were planning a new War and that they could have foiled the Shadow's plans by stopping of their advance scouting parties.

"Why do you think they would leave you alive?" one of them asked. Her green-eyed gaze tried to cut through him, and almost looked as if they could.

"Tomeine, surely you don't believe that he could have had anything to do with this attack. Two halfmen tried to skewer him for Light's sake," Rashelle said. The Red, Tomeine, snorted and looked away from Jed's suddenly hard expression.

"Maybe you should think about this for a moment, Tomeine," the other Red said. "Imagine the nine..." she looked at Namelle and corrected herself, "...the eight of us killed and a man who can channel left alive and free." She shuddered.

Tomeine's face paled. Jed knew very well what she was thinking. Nine _Aes Sedai_, for he still included Namelle in the group-the White Tower would not know that she had been severed-killed and a potential madman with the ability to grasp _saidin_ left free. Jed knew how powerful he was and believed he could at the very least lay waste to everything he could see for miles, if only for a short time before he exhausted himself.

Jed looked over at Alaria and the other Al'sieta Sedai. They were walking among the trollocs, killing the ones that had been linked to the myrddraal. Katerine was looking his way. He met her eyes for an instant before she turned back to the shadowspawn. Jed shivered. He didn't think he had ever seen so much hate in someone's eyes before. He would have to keep his eyes open around her. _'Oh,'_ he thought, _'she will not have forgotten the twice-daily beatings for severing Namelle.'_

Jed watched as Katerine walked over to Alaria and spoke to her. Alaria looked over to where Jed was standing and then glanced at the sword still clasped in his right hand. She frowned and nodded to Katerine, who smiled and called out to Elena and Salarme. Jed groaned. Salarme. That could only mean another beating. Jed looked to the east above the trees and saw lightness to the sky. Dawn was drawing near and a beating with it. He would have thought that they would let him off or forget were they anything but Red Ajah.

Katerine lead them like hounds towards him, Elena looking uncomfortable and Salarme resigned. Katerine had a smirk on her face.

Jed calmly wiped his sword on the grass and sheathed it before walking over to Rashelle who was busy moving the corpses out of the clearing. She looked up at him as he stopped in front of her.

"I would ask you to care for this while I am...indisposed," he said, glancing at the advancing Reds.

Rashelle looked in the direction he was and muttered angrily under her breath. "I will not allow this," she said angrily. "It is barbaric."

Namelle and the two Reds holding his shield looked up when Rashelle called to them.

"Stay here," she said firmly. Jed nodded. Rashelle turned to Rhemala and Tomeine as they walked over. "Jed defended us while we were vulnerable tonight, though he could just as easily have turned against us and used the attack to escape."

'_Not likely,'_ he thought, _'otherwise I would have'_. He knew he was lying to himself even as he thought it. Raised in the Land between Two Rivers he could no more think of abandoning women in need than he could lift himself with the Power.

The growing numbness in his shoulder had spread to the rest of his left arm and was now entering his chest. Jed was finding it more and more difficult to breath but thought it no more than his exhaustion catching up with him.

He turned his attention back to the Al'sieta Sedai. It seemed they were discussing whether or not he should be beaten this morning. Jed felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe they would leave him alone for a couple of days. They would not be able to punish him when they reached Jaroncen for fear of attracting too much attention, unless they meant to show him off to the people there. Jed was not a False Dragon so they probably would not.

"Move out of my way, Rashelle," Jed heard. He looked at the group and saw to his surprise that Rashelle, Rhemala and Namelle were in a line between him and Katerine. The numbness in his shoulder had begun to itch and was beginning to irritate him. Tomeine was to the side of the line, her eyes on Jed. He felt at the shield and saw that one of the dots had gone hard, but the other was still soft. _'Tomeine must be holding the shield,'_ Jed thought, _'while Rhemala tied hers and let go.'_

Jed thought about making a break for it, but dashed the idea when he realised that he would not get far in his condition. Better to stay with the Al'sieta Sedai for now.

"You cannot punish him this morning, Katerine," Rhemala was saying, "he has risked his life to defend us, even when he knew the cost. For today at least, let him rest and his wounds heal."

"What you are doing is disgusting, Katerine," Rashelle added with a twist of her mouth.

Katerine looked surprised. "Her, I would have expected this from," she said, jabbing her thumb in Rashelle's direction, "but you, Rhemala? Namelle was your friend. How could you let this _man_," her face showed disgust, "get away without punishment?" she demanded.

Rhemala opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by Namelle, standing next to her.

"How dare you!" she shouted in Katerine's face. The other Reds had all stopped what they were doing to watch. "You speak as if I am dead, Katerine! I'm not, I've just been...been...," she took a huge breath, closed her eyes and finished, "Stilled!" Katerine flinched when she spoke the dreaded word, and so did every other woman there.

Namelle opened her eyes. She glared at Katerine and the other women. "Ultimately, whether I am Aes Sedai or not, it is my choice whether the punishment continues." Katerine tried to protest but Namelle stopped her with a finger in the chest. Katerine stepped back in surprise and blushed crimson when she realised what she had done. "My choice!" she said. "And I choose to let him go free of punishments until we reach the Tower. He faces the same fate he gave me, and that is more than anyone should ever have to endure," she finished, sobbing. Rashelle patted her shoulder and Rhemala offered comforting words, even hesitantly laying a hand on her other shoulder. Jed realised suddenly that his arm was burning. He could barely breathe and his left lung felt like it was being crushed. He tried to speak but nothing came out.

"Katerine, Namelle is right." The voice belonged to Alaria. "However much I wish it were not so we cannot harm him unless Namelle asks. His life belongs to her in payment for what he did." Katerine scowled and Jed saw Rashelle's head shake. So she still wanted him punished, but thought he deserved to be let off, if only for one night. He should have known better. All Aes Sedai were the same, no matter how pleasant they seemed on the outside.

"Well then," Katerine said, smoothing her riding dress in frustration, "at least take that sword away from him. He is a man and whether or not he can channel he cannot be trusted with it." She pointed at Jed and froze, staring at him in shock. Jed could no longer feel anything but the pain in his arm and across his chest. He had lost control and was sweating profusely, his shirt damp and his hair soaked. He could barely stand and could not process the looks on all their faces as he struggled to stay conscious.

"Jed!" someone screamed, and he felt something rap him and lift him as he fell. Everything blurred, and Jed felt as if he had been dropped into a furnace. As he slipped out of consciousness he felt something cold fill him, but it did not relieve the flames burning him for long. Jed heard voices, or what he thought were voices, as the pain engulfed him once again.

"_Stop the burning!"_ he screamed. Jed suddenly felt something release, and suddenly the pain was outside the void and he could feel a light over his shoulder. _Saidin_. He reached for it and had almost managed to grasp it when suddenly it was taken away from him. He could still feel it though, but it was rushing through him, going somewhere else. Was this it? Had he finally succumbed to the taint? But no, even as pain speared through him, he felt the taint, rushing to greet him as _saidin_ raged through him but stopping once it reached his mind. Pure _saidin_ flowed through him, and Jed had time only to wonder where it was going as he fell into blackness.

* * *

><p>Jed didn't know where he was. It was strange, though; there were bright lights everywhere, like the stars in the night sky, and the space around him was indeed black. Some of the lights looked closer than others, and some seemed pale, indistinct, almost as if they were not truly there. Jed felt tired; though since he was sure he was already sleeping he didn't know how that was possible. Gently he slipped away, and dreams took him.<p>

_He stood on a rocky outcrop at the edge of a raging sea. Lightning struck down from dark clouds above him and in the distance Jed thought he could see mountains rising and falling. There were fires burning on those mountains, some seemed to be consumed in flame and disappeared in moments. Suddenly the scene before him changed and Jed saw two figures standing in the distance. He found himself moving towards them across the increasingly rough terrain. Jed saw that to his left the land was smooth and even, a large lake, or sea, maybe half a league away across the plain. He looked to his right and saw mountains and jagged peaks rising out of the earth. Huge glaciers of ice were crumbling and forming amid mountains of fire. When he looked up he saw that above him a storm was raging, lightning flashing down from the sky and cleaving great furrows in the land , leaving flashes of light but no sound, anywhere. The storm ended in a straight line going as far as Jed could see in both directions before and behind him. With a start Jed realised that the line where the storm ended and calm, clear skies began was directly above the place where the endless mountains met the smooth plains and calm sea. Struggling over the jagged landscape and fighting his way through the rough winds Jed made his way toward the two figures. He did not try to move onto the plains, but could not fathom why. Surely it would be easier going to walk there instead of on this mountainside. As he drew closer to the two figures Jed noticed that the land beneath his feet was coated in a sickly looking grass. When his foot came down on it the grass leaned toward him as if in a breeze. Instead of touching him though the grass seemed to melt away from his feet, leaving only the harsh rock and earth behind. Jed was close enough now to see that they figures before him were male and female. Soon he found himself close enough to see that they were twins, their faces exactly alike except for her full lips and curves and his obvious masculinity. She was more beautiful than Jed could ever have imagined and her brother just as handsome, though Jed noticed this only in passing. Their hair, hers long and straight to her waist and his, a wild mess to his shoulders were purest white and darkest black respectively, though there were fine streaks running through both that were red, brown, blue, yellow and violet. Jed drew up in front of the man. He looked twenty and she the same. The woman was standing on the edge of the plain and the boy leaning against her, his feet firmly planted on the rough grass. Now that Jed was close enough he saw that there were dark circles around the man's bloodshot eyes and his skin was covered in a fine sheen of sweat._

'_Where am I?' Jed asked. 'Who are you?'_

_The woman smiled at him and the man ginned through his anguish. 'You know us, In'cendya Par'vulas,' she said._

'_I do not know what you mean,' he said, though the name she had called him tugged at something within him._

_The woman smiled again. The man tried to speak but coughed instead. The woman's smile turned sad as she supported him while he retched._

'_Are you sick?' Jed asked. 'Is there anything I can do for you?' He moved closer to the pair and offered his arm to support the man. He leaned on Jed's arm and gave him an appreciative smile._

'_Nothing can be done for me yet, In'cendya Par'vulas, not for a long time yet I fear. Still, it is no matter. Time has little meaning here.' His voice was strong and weak at the same time. Jed frowned, confused._

'_Am I dreaming?' he asked._

_The woman answered, her voice filling him with joy. 'Yes,' she said, 'but this place is not for you, not now that you have clothed yourself with flesh. Jed's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Clothed himself with flesh?_

'_Who are you,' he asked, 'and what is this place?' Jed felt a growing cold in his chest and the dream began to fade. The man began coughing again and the woman caught him as he slipped out of Jed's arm. Slipped through his arm he saw with horror. The man and woman were fading along with everything else. 'Wait,' he shouted, 'tell me who you are!' They were fading, everything fading as he was pulled away, the cold within him filling his entire body._

'_I already told you,' she said, smiling sadly as she looked at the man, 'you have always known us, In'cendya Par'vulas.' Then he knew. Jed's eyes widened as he looked at the fading world around him and at the man and woman standing before him, both smiling now that the man had stopped coughing. Jed gasped as he was suddenly jerked back, the man and woman vanishing along with the dream._

* * *

><p>Rashelle was furious at Elena for what she had been about to do. She glared at the other woman as Namelle shouted at Katerine. Whether he was able to touch <em>saidin<em> or not, it had been her duty to aid him after he _saved her life_. She had seen Jed take his scabbard and sword from Namelle and nod to her. Rashelle was still shocked to know that she had felt a sudden jealousy when Jed nodded at Namelle in thanks. She had taken out her anger on a trolloc, throwing a fireball right into its face. The next thing she knew a sword-wielding Jed had thrown himself between a myrdraal and Elena, stopping the blade that would have taken her head from her shoulders. Rashelle had been amazed to see his skill with the sword as he fought off the myrdraal and killed it. And Elena had repaid him by running for the safety of Alaria and the other Reds just before the group had been separated by the foul creatures. Now here she was, willing to beat him alongside Katerine even with the life-debt she owed him. The thought of the corruption in the Red Ajah sickened her, as much as it sickened most others of the Green. Since the Betrayal of Manetheren the Green Ajah had never sided with the Red for anything, opposing them in everything except when the Amyrlin demanded they work together. Rashelle was only aiding the Reds because Alaria had ordered her to join them. Being of higher standing in the Tower made no difference when a Red was hunting a man who could channel so Rashelle had had no choice but to join the hunting party, though it was expected of her anyway.

Elena avoided her eyes, looking at anything but at Rashelle or the man standing behind her. Rashelle admitted that she still felt a slight shiver whenever she turned her back on him. A man who could channel. She had been excited to join the hunt and horrified by what happened to Namelle, but when she had seen how handsome the man was and how sorry and resigned he had looked whenever his eyes had fallen on Namelle her fear and anger of him had begun to subside. He was a man who could channel, but that was not his fault.

Rashelle shook her head and focused on what was being said. "Well then," Katerine said, looking flustered, "at least take that sword away from him. He is a man and whether or not he can channel he cannot be trusted with it." Katerine pointed at Jed and her eyes suddenly widened as she froze in shock. Rashelle spun, along with Namelle, Rhemala and Tomeine, who had turned her attention away from Jed to watch the argument. She had expected to see Jed gone but nothing prepared her for what she did see.

Jed was swaying on his feet, barely able to stand and was dripping with sweat. His eyes were closed and he was gasping for breath. Suddenly his legs gave way and he fell.

"Jed!" she and Namelle shouted. Quickly Rashelle embraced _saidar_ and wrapped him in flows of Air, catching him as he dropped. Namelle was at his side in an instant, which for some reason surprised and angered her at the same time, though she didn't understand why she was angry. Rashelle walked to his side as calmly as she could, though she also wanted to run. She knelt at his side and looked at his face. He was gasping for breath and looked hardly able to remain conscious.

"Salarme," Rashelle shouted.

"I'm here," she said. The rest of them gathered around as Salarme delved him and began to weave webs of Air, Spirit and Water to Heal him. "The wound is in his left shoulder she said calmly, laying the web over him. Rashelle watched Namelle out of the corner of her eye as the weave settled into his body. Namelle's face was pale and she was clasping Jed's heron blade to her breast, her knuckles white around the hilt and scabbard. Rashelle's eyes were drawn back to the Healing as she heard Salarme curse. Salarme never cursed. Even when angry she was always polite which was why Rashelle and the other Novices and Accepted had been astonished when she chose the Red Ajah over the Yellow. Everyone, even the Yellows, had expected her to choose them; so much so that it was believed that they had taught her their secret signs in preparation for her Raising to the Shawl.

"What's wrong?" Rashelle asked quickly. Namelle had opened her mouth, presumably to ask the same thing but closed it when Rashelle got there ahead of her.

"I am not powerful enough on my own. He fought the myrddraal?" she asked.

"Yes," Rhemala said before Rashelle could speak, "the thing dropped its sword when Namelle threw one of his shortswords at it. The boy managed to roll out of the way but the blade must have caught his shoulder."

"A Thakan'dar wrought blade," Katerine said in disgust. She seemed to say a lot with disgust but this time Rashelle did not disagree. Forged in the valley of Thakan'dar, and completed using the souls of people captured in trolloc raids, the black blades of myrddraal did not last forever but even a scratch meant death. "He is finished!" Katerine said, a small quirk of her mouth betraying her feelings at the thought of Jed dying. Rashelle fought a surge of anger that welled up in her at the other woman's words.

"If we form a circle we may have enough strength to save him," she said. Maybe enough, but they would not know unless they tried. "We cannot let him die, Alaria," Rashelle stated firmly.

"I have already sent a pigeon to Tar Valon," she said, "so it would be unwise to return without him. Whether or not his death was caused by us, the other Ajahs will see it differently." She looked pointedly at Rashelle when she finished. The Reds were still not in favour, since memories of Tetsuan were strong in the eyes of the other Ajahs. If they returned without a man to gentle they would be set hard penances, Rashelle along with them, though hers would be less since she was of the green Ajah.

One by one they agreed to try, reaching for the source without embracing it. Salarme Linked with them one by one until all eight of them were a part of the circle. Namelle looked pitifully out-of-place among them, the only one not glowing with Power. Rashelle knew that Namelle could still see the glow but the woman wasn't even looking at them, all her attention on the dying man in front of her. She looked as though she was holding onto a lifeline the way she stared at him. Rashelle realised suddenly that Salarme was not holding the shield on Jed. In fact it had dissipated completely. Tomeine had left the shield intact when she let go of the source to be drawn into the circle but Salarme had released it as soon as she had complete control.

"Why did you release his shield?" Alaria demanded, stepping closer to Salarme.

"I must have all my concentration if I am to Heal him," she retorted, "and a shield may interfere with the weave if it is still active." Not looking away from Jed's now still form she added, "Besides, he is not going to wake up unless I Heal him, so how is he going to embrace the source?" Alaria nodded grudgingly, and a few of the others gulped nervously.

Rashelle didn't care; she only wanted to see him awake and talking again. She still had questions for him. Rashelle suspected that Jed was a lot older than he looked. With smooth skin and red-streaked black hair and dark eyes he looked as if he had no more than twenty Namedays behind him. She had been studying him since his capture and, when he was conscious at least, she had seen experience and age in his eyes, more than the twenty summers he looked could have gathered in such a short life. She did not like to admit it, but he looked a lot like an Aes Sedai.

Salarme delved him again, drawing deeply through the seven of them. Rashelle had to focus not to be distracted by the amount of Power flowing through her. It was strange that the glow seemed to encompass all of them but Namelle without breaking or moulding around her. A true study of how this occurred had never been completed when it was discovered that they could not go beyond thirteen without men. Then, the Brown Ajah had completely forgotten about it. Rashelle shook her head in frustration. Not only had she been distracted but she had begun thinking like a Brown. She refocused on the Healing.

As Salarme reached into Jed with _saidar_ something changed. Rashelle could not say what, but something in Jed's expression seemed to release, as if he was no longer feeling the pain of his wound. Suddenly Salarme gave a start and squealed, astounding Rashelle and the others. Then Rashelle felt it. Something else had entered the circle. Rashelle could feel a raging torrent of...something, something chaotic, beyond her comprehension. Perhaps it was the Healing.

"Alaria!" Katerine shouted. She looked terrified and was trying to break the circle.

"Stop, Katerine," Salarme held up her hand without turning her gaze from Jed's still form. Katerine, eyes wide, tried to speak but Salarme interrupted her. "I know," she said, closing her eyes quickly before opening them and beginning the Healing. "I know."

_Saidar_ flowed into Jed, forming the standard Healing weaves, and suddenly the chaotic force that had invaded their circle was drawn into the weaving. As it disappeared something wound its way around the weaves of _saidar_, strengthening the web as it was laid into Jed's body. Rashelle could not see it. She could not feel it. A force of nothing seemed to be weaving itself into the Healing. Rashelle gasped as she realised what it was, and felt shivers freeze her spine. _'Saidin!'_ she thought frantically. _Saidin_, the tainted male half of the True Source was _in their circle!_

Rashelle, eyes wide, saw others in the circle begin to understand, saw their faces turn to horror. Alaria's jaws were clenched and sweat rolled down her face. Tarnia, a usually quiet but fierce woman from the nation of Farashelle, with dark eyes and mostly grey hair had not spoken since Jed had been captured. But now she was whispering, too quietly for Rashelle to understand. It sounded like the Common Tongue. Elena suddenly turned and retched, leaning away from the group. Rashelle and the others respectfully turned their heads away. Not everybody had the stomach to endure this. Salarme, still weaving flows of Air, Water and Spirit only looked determined.

Suddenly, Power stopped flowing into Jed, and Salarme stepped back, staggering slightly. Rashelle was surprised to feel her feet aching and looked around to see Rhemala, Tarnia and Katerine all sitting on the grass tiredly. How long had they been there? Namelle was still clutching Jed's sword to her breast, but she no longer looked afraid.

"Is it done?" Alaria asked. Salarme looked up and nodded.

"It is done," she said, before swaying her way over to one of the oaks and sitting down on one of its roots. Rashelle looked up and was surprised to see the sun almost directly above them. They had been there for almost half the day she realised.

Salarme spoke up from her position under the oak. "We should leave this place soon," she called out, "we have dallied here too long already." Suiting her own words she stood and began tiredly saddling her horse.

"Yes, thank you," Alaria muttered. "Katerine, Tarnia, Namelle, start loading the cart. Tomeine and Rhemala, would you lift him," she pointed at Jed, "onto the cart and then saddle your horses. Elena, clean yourself up and then stay with Salarme; she looks ready to fall off her horse." Salarme did indeed look ready to fall. She had barely managed to mount her brown mare. "Rashelle," Alaria said. She gestured to the road. Everyone was ready and mounted, except her.

"Yes, of course," she said, scrambling onto her bay gelding. Rashelle was very proud of Ashan, which meant sword in the Noble's Tongue, or the Old Tongue depending on your origins. He was a warhorse, bred in the borderlands. Rashelle had bought him in Maradon almost a year ago, when she had first come to the north. Her sisters of the Green Ajah had said that if none of the men in the Tower appealed to her the next best place to get a Warder would be in the borderlands, so she had come north to search, trading her timid grey and a gold mark in Maradon for Ashan. She hadn't thought it worth it then, but had grown to love the horse over the last year. Jed's horse was also a warhorse but she doubted he was as good as Ashan.

The party turned onto the road, Jed's horse leading the cart, and the Red sisters split into a group before and behind it, Alaria joining Rashelle at the front with Salarme and Katerine behind them, then Namelle in the cart watching Jed, her horse riding alongside and Rhemala, Tomeine, Elena and Tarnia riding behind the cart, keeping an eye on Jed and the surrounding countryside.

"It occurs to me," Alaria suddenly said as they rode, "that we could use some guards to ride with us." Rashelle stared at her in astonishment, Katerine and Salarme no less astounded by what Alaria had just said.

"What?" she asked. "_You_ want guards?" she asked. Alaria was _Red_. Light! Why would she want guards?

"Don't look so surprised," she laughed. "I'm sure we could deal with any threat on our own, as we did last night, but doesn't it seem suspicious to you, nine women travelling without protection with an unconscious man in a cart?"

"I suppose it does, but these are the borderlands and this is the Border Road. There may be those who will recognise your faces as those of an Aes Sedai," Rashelle finished glumly. She had not yet been Aes Sedai long enough to gain the ageless face and it would be at least another five years before it began to show. It was said in the Tower that once, before Tetsuan's betrayal of Manetheren, Aes Sedai had not developed ageless features upon donning the shawl as full sisters. Nobody knew why this had begun to happen but there was a popular rumour among the novices that it was a curse on all Aes Sedai by the last queen of Manetheren, Eldrene the Rose of the Sun, for betraying Manetheren to its doom. It would not seem so much of a curse had it not been for the fact that, despite the Tower's best attempts to quell them, the facts remained that Aes Sedai had also lived for hundreds of years longer before Manetheren fell.

Alaria spoke, bringing Rashelle out of her wandering thoughts. "If there are those in Jaroncen who recognise an ageless face then we will have to either hire them as guards or convince them to keep quiet."

Rashelle frowned. "I would have thought that you would want to show Jed at every town, let the people see what he is."

Alaria laughed and Katerine and Salarme smiled in amusement. "That is just a rumour spread among the novices and the other Ajahs," she explained. "We only let everyone know False Dragons so that, if they escape, people they pass who have seen them will recognise them and, if _they_ are smart, keep their mouths shut until they can send a message to us." Rashelle kept her face smooth but inside she was scolding herself for not working this out sooner.

"I don't understand though," she said, confused, "surely you would want to show the people that the Red Ajah capture all men who can channel, and not just those who claim to be the Dragon Reborn." That is what she had always assumed, that the Reds would want the world to know that they hunted down all men who could channel.

"Why would we need to show them all?" Alaria asked. "There are certainly less men now than there were five hundred years ago who can channel the One Power but would showing them all to the people give the idea that there must be even more that we do not find?" Rashelle thought she was beginning to understand.

"No," Alaria continued, "we do not want to frighten people into believing that there is a man channelling _saidin_ around every corner so we only show off those who cannot be hidden. Since he," she pointed at the cart. Alaria never spoke his name for some reason, "was smart enough not to reveal to the population that he was channelling back in Garadrin we did not need to announce that there was a man wielding _saidin_ on the loose."

"So that is how you help to protect, apart from hunting them down anyway, by hiding how many there really are," Rashelle said.

"Exactly," Alaria turned to Salarme. "When will he wake up?" she asked. Salarme looked back at the cart and the two forms inside.

"Maybe half a week, Alaria," she said, "five or six days, seven at the most. If he doesn't wake up after that he won't wake." Alaria nodded thoughtfully.

"Will Healing him every night help," Rashelle asked. Salarme frowned and shook her head.

"No, it will most likely only make things worse. I've removed the poison of the myrddraal's blade but his body must heal on its own." She looked at Rashelle and added, "It's up to him now."

When they stopped to rest for the night, after the horses had been tethered and their feedbags placed over their heads, Rashelle sat down around the sheltered fire with the others. They had placed wards around the camp, one that would warn of any shadowspawn or human approaching from more than a hundred paces and another to wrap them in flows of Air until the sisters could determine whether they were shadowspawn or not. Jed had not stirred since the Healing but his breathing was even and he did not look like he was in pain. Namelle was feeding him water and soup off to one side. It had shocked them all when she had taken his two shortswords, oiled and sharpened them and then sheathed them and placed them beside her pack, within reach of her blankets. Rashelle supposed that now that she no longer had the Power she needed something to fill the hole left behind and had decided to take on the swords Jed had offered her in an attempt to retain the will to live. They were all still uneasy around her but Rashelle and Rhemala at least were making the effort to treat her as they had before, asking her opinion and speaking to her as an equal.

The Reds were speaking to each other quietly. Salarme stood and announced that she was going to bed, before staggering slowly over to her blankets and falling asleep. A whole morning of Healing and a day in the saddle, she should have collapsed hours ago but somehow managed to remain awake until now. Rashelle smiled to herself. Besides Salarme, she herself was the best healer among them though her skills were only average. She had healed away some of Salarme's fatigue, but only enough to ensure that Salarme ate before collapsing in her blankets. Rashelle thought about when the Reds had passed through the village she had been staying in on her way to Elsalam in search of a Warder. It turned out now that Rashelle had already seen Jed in the village inn. He had been finishing a meal when she walked in the door but she had thought nothing of it until the next morning. She had seen his sword with a heron branded on the hilt as he was leaving for the stables to check on his horse and possessions. She had asked the innkeeper how long he was staying and the man told her that she had just missed him and that he was leaving that very moment after paying for a night's rent. When she went out to stop him, thinking that if he really was a blademaster she could take him before another sister found him he had already gone. Her saddle had broken upon reaching the village so she was stuck there until the leathersmith could replace it. Two days and several travellers and merchants guards later the Reds had rode in hunting a man who had channelled in Garadrin and she had been caught up in the hunt. She had been very surprised when she saw him in that little clearing.

"Alaria," she said, "you mentioned earlier that Jed had channelled in Garadrin." Alaria stopped eating and looked at her before answering.

"I suppose you ought to know," she said. Rashelle waited.

"We had been tracking signs of a man channelling, reading the resonances he left behind whenever he channelled you understand, when the trail went cold. We hired a tracker in a village six hours back along the road to find his trail. I suppose he realised that he was being followed, or just decided to stop channelling for as long as he could. These things happen, especially when they don't want to channel." She paused to finish her meal and embraced the Power briefly to clean the bowl and spoon.

"Anyway, the tracker led us, following traces we couldn't see in the earth. You can imagine what he must have felt like each day, saying we were no closer to him and that the man we were following was still several days ahead of us. The tracker, Jaril I think his name was, knew we were Aes Sedai and was terrified of us" She laughed and shook her head. "We were only four then; this was before Garadrin," she explained. "Somehow Jaril lost the trail, said that it was gone, had just ended. He reasoned that the man we were following must have left false trails and taken another route. We searched everywhere, Jaril looking for traces in the land and we looking for resonances left by uses of _saidin_. Nothing," she finished sourly. "I'm not even sure that he knew we were following him now. He might simply have been hiding his path from anyone. We," she gestured to herself, Katerine, Tomeine and Salarme, "were tired and fed up so we told Jaril to take us to the nearest town, which happened to be Garadrin. When we learned that it was on the edge of a river which joined the Arinelle further down and traded along it we travelled as fast as we could, almost killing our horses. If he was trying to escape us and knew where he was going it would likely be there, to board a ship to escape us. We were in the town for about a month or so, and gathered Namelle, Rhemala, Elena and Tarnia as they came." She stopped and grimaced, looking at Katerine. "While we were there Katerine learned that the Mayor of the town had a man in service to him who could somehow smell violence and death and she tried to kidnap him." Katerine scowled, and opened her mouth.

"He might very well have been able to channel and you know it, Alaria. Any man doing something unnatural or otherwise impossible should be taken to the Tower to be gentled or studied." Rashelle looked at Katerine in disbelief.

"If we dragged every man with any unusual abilities to the Tower it would be packed full by the end of the first month," she said. Rhemala smiled and Tarnia laughed out loud. Katerine looked like she was sulking, if an Aes Sedai could do that.

"As I was saying," Alaria interrupted, glaring at all of them, "the mayor wasn't best pleased that we had tried to kidnap his...sniffer," Alaria said awkwardly, " but we assured him that Katerine was very sorry and that we would not be taking the man away from him. He apparently depends on him quite a lot to find criminals and such. About a month and a half after we arrived, news came that a village ten miles north had been massacred by trollocs. Reports hadn't come sooner because the watchtower in the village hadn't been lit. The scouts reported that somebody had locked themselves in and slit her wrists." Alaria looked at her significantly and Rashelle nodded in understanding. The others muttered under their breaths angrily. "A day later the town was attacked. One of the townsmen unlocked and opened the main gates and killed the guards there. Trolloc raiding party got into the town, about two thousand of them and apparently one of the larger raiding parties. We were fighting them off, calling lightning and such when Namelle realised that a lot of the lightning bolts coming down on the filthy creatures were more powerful than hers. She said that at one point when she called one bolt, ten more struck down a moment later in quick succession, devastating the trollocs and myrddraal trying to get to her. After the battle we checked for resonances of _saidin_ and found traces everywhere, all over the town and in the most devastated places where more trollocs had been killed than anywhere else. We tracked the damage back to an inn called the Wandering Servant," Alaria snorted, "and found a massive hole in the wall and roof where one the inn's more expensive rooms had been. The innkeeper assumed that it had been us and was actually thankful because apparently a large group had made straight for his inn and two myrddraal had gone up the stairs just before the alarm was raised and the innkeeper heard the first lightning strikes outside." Alaria looked at Jed's sleeping form.

"They were searching for him?" Rashelle asked.

"Maybe, but they could also have felt him and wanted to kill him before he could kill them. Several other groups did converge on our own rooms in the mayor's residence," Alaria said. Rashelle was surprised to hear Alaria speaking in favour of Jed, but supposed that it did make sense.

"So we learned that he had disappeared from the inn when his room exploded and the innkeeper assumed he had been killed, that is until he tried to claim Jed's possessions as his own. His horse and pack were gone. We tracked him to the village where you were staying, and you know the rest," she finished.

Rashelle laughed, and when Alaria and the others looked at her questioningly, Namelle even looking up from her place sitting in her blankets, she explained, "I saw him in that village, when I first entered the inn. He was eating, and the next morning as he was leaving I caught a glimpse of his sword. I saw the heron branded on the hilt and decided to bond him if it turned out that he was a blademaster." Alaria looked at her questioningly. Rashelle sighed. Reds were so single-minded when it came to men. "You have noticed how handsome he is haven't you?" she asked, "Not to mention that he's a blademaster."

"And what if he had not been what he is and you asked him to be your Warder?" Tarnia asked from her seat. "What if he refused your offer?"

"Rashelle looked at her oddly, "Then I would have taken him anyway, of course." Tarnia looked down at her soup and nodded as if she had expected no other answer. The others didn't bat an eye. They all knew that it was an Aes Sedai's right to be able to bond any man they wished if he carried a sword and was not married.

"Of course," Alaria said, "but I don't see why you need a Warder anyway..." she continued and Rashelle immediately engaged her in the age-old argument between the Reds and the Greens over whether or not Warders were necessary.

* * *

><p>In her blankets, Namelle thought of Rashelle's words and wished that she could still channel, so that she could bond Jed for herself and to the Pit of Doom with her being Red Ajah. As it was, Rashelle still might decide to take him once he had been gentled. She felt that hole in the back of her mind every day, but somehow it seemed less when she was near Jed, more bearable. Since he had told her he would teach her the sword if she wished it she felt even more drawn to him. A purpose. She needed a purpose and she was determined to learn. She would be the first female blademaster she thought as she drifted off to sleep.<p>

The party made good progress over the next few days, though they kept a close watch on the still sleeping form of Jed in the cart and on the surrounding countryside. Some of the trollocs had escaped the night of the attack, and no doubt had run for the nearest Hide outside of the blight. It was not well known outside the Tower or the borderlands, but shadowspawn raiding parties still had Hides and some minor battle camps below the blight. Not all had been found after the end of the Wars and sometimes raiding parties fleeing back to the blight disappeared before getting there if they knew they were being followed by borderland garrisons. The trail would go cold and there would be no trace; sometimes it would be found again but not before the creatures had already gone. Surprisingly, many of them led underground, though trollocs were supposed to be afraid of caves and tunnels. The third night after the Healing saw the arrival of a merchant band, six wagons carrying books, tools, strips of cloth and delicacies such as wines, ice peppers from the west of Basharande and an almost depleted stock of tabac from Farashelle. The band came within sight of the Aes Sedai camp in time for Alaria to instruct them to remove their shawls and Great Serpent rings.

The band leader introduced himself as Serdren Kinn. He was a tall man with greying black hair and a short beard, with laughter lines around his eyes and mouth. His eyes themselves were kind but his posture was rigid and his voice stern. He wore a merchant's clothes, fine but not too prosperous, so as to avoid the eyes of thieves or bandits. The caravan had over two hundred mounted guards, armed with swords and lances with short Hamarean horse bows in quivers strapped to their saddles. The merchants camped around the Aes Sedai, and the Namelle noted that the male guards and traders seemed very interested in her and the others. After a little harmless flirting with one of the traders, Namelle learned that the merchants had been attacked by roadside thieves after procuring the ice peppers and had lost two wagons, six traders and most of their previous guards. They had doubled their guard in Maradon and were now making their way to Shol Arbela to sell some of their wares and procure more books before making their way by road down to Al'cair'rahienallen where they would buy more books and tabac before heading to the Aiel Waste.

"Aye," one of the traders, Devin, said, "The Aiel, they are a fierce people but when we trade at their Holds, their towns I suppose, the books are always the first thing to go." Devin was a large man, with strong arms and a thick chest. His face was handsome Namelle supposed, in a rugged way, and he had a three-day growth of facial hair around a bushy moustache which rather reminded Namelle of a small rodent. His clothes were stout brown wool with a dark green cloak and black boots. Though his clothes were not especially expensive the black belt with a silver buckle betrayed his wealth. Strangely, he wore a dark blue strip of cloth around his upper left arm and his brown hair had blue beads dangling from a braid hanging down his right ear.

"Really," Namelle asked, squeezing Devin's arm in well-faked shock. Her eyes widened. "I always believed they were nothing but savages who would sooner kill you than even speak to you."

Devin laughed, his deep voice rich and healthy. "Nay," he said, smiling through his moustache, "though if you do not have an Aiel guide with you they will strip you of your clothes and send you back to the Spine with nothing but a waterskin." Namelle's eyes widened in true shock. She was a native of the nation of Tova and had heard stories of Aiel ferocity before she had gone to the Tower but she had never really believed they were true.

"So if you cannot find an Aiel guide at the Jangai Pass what will you do with all of your books?" she asked, smiling suggestively.

"That would never happen," Devin's voice said from behind her. She turned to see another Devin standing behind her, smiling widely at the look of shock that must have been on her face.

"Twins!" she said in disbelief. More than twins, it looked as though they were the same person, wearing the same clothes and the same belt, even the same facial hair; Light! The same, she noted, save for one small detail. Where Devin had blue beads and a blue strip of cloth on his left arm and right ear braid, this Devin had a red cloth on his right arm and red beads dangling from a braid over his left ear.

"Aye," Red-strip said, smiling over her shoulder at his brother. She looked over to see him smiling, but he looked rather put-out. "Forgive me," Red-strip said, taking her hand and lifting it to his lips, just as Devin had done when he came over to their camp with Serdren. "My name is Brannin and I have the unfortunate responsibility of being Devin's older and more attractive brother," he said.

Namelle laughed as Devin let out a snort; they both new perfectly well that they looked exactly the same.

The other sisters were mostly ignoring the exchange, save Rashelle who looked up interestedly from her place beside Jed. Namelle felt no little annoyance at that. Over the last few days Rashelle had been spending more and more time with her, especially when she was watching Jed sleep. Namelle was sure now that Rashelle intended to bond Jed as soon as he had been gentled and she was not sure what she could do to stop it, save taking Jed away before then. But no, she had been Red Ajah, and no matter what her feelings were for the boy, she could not let him loose on the world. She would wait, bide her time and, hopefully, be able to draw Jed way from Rashelle and to her through the sword training that he had promised her.

She turned back to the two brothers. "So, why are you so sure there will be a guide waiting for you?" she asked Brannin.

"I would have to say partly because there has always been one and partly because they always seem to know when we are coming," he said, smiling. "We are always met by the same man, a strange fellow with a scar here," he drew a line across his neck, causing Namelle to gasp, "and he leads us to a Hold in the waste, though they call it the Three-fold Land for some reason."

Devin jumped in, "We never could get out of him why they call it that, but there it is," he said.

"He had his throat slit?" Namelle asked.

"Apparently," Devin said, "he got it fighting with some other clan called the Shaido. Took us weeks to find out though, but we can be very persuasive," he said, grinning at his brother who grinned back. They looked so mischievous that Namelle didn't doubt that they had probably irritated the Aiel into telling them.

"You were lucky you didn't get yourselves killed," she breathed, examining their reactions to her voice. It was quite interesting knowing that she had this affect on people. She had never before noticed it in the Red Ajah, even when she had been hiding who she was after capturing a man for Trial and gentling. She was beginning to see why the Green Ajah usually took more than one Warder and why they took so much pleasure in attracting men and seeing them compete for the Green's affections. She remembered a time when she had seen two men come to blows over the affections of a Green who had led them both by the nose just to see who would make a better Warder. As she was thinking the twins competed to tell her more about the waste and the Aiel, along with all the other places they had been like Shandalle, Tremalking and even Tar Valon. She was amused at the way they described her former home, talking about it as if the Creator himself lived there. Again, she noticed their coloured strips. She could see why they wore them but did not understand why they allowed it. She asked them and they were about to answer when another voice interrupted.

"They wear those colours," Serdren said sternly, coming over to them with Alaria walking alongside him, "because the rest of us grew tired of their jokes at the expense of paying customers and our guards. Even we couldn't distinguish between them without the cloths or beads." He glared at the twins but there was an amused sparkle in his eyes. The twins looked sullen and to Namelle's amusement seemed to be sulking. They had to be entering their middle years yet they acted like children.

"Why do you not simply send them away?" Alaria asked, looking through the twins and glancing at Serdren not much differently. He was a man and she a Red after all.

Serdren smiled, "Because despite their annoying jokes they happen to be very good traders and, when they are not using their similarities to annoy us at least, they are good company."

"Couldn't you still joke by swapping colours though?" Namelle asked.

Devin shook his head sullenly and Serdren replied when the twins didn't say anything. "They tried that after we first held them down and slapped those colours on them," he said.

"What happened?" Alaria asked, interested despite the company.

Brannin answered, "Serdren announced to the rest that whichever of us wore red was Brannin and the other was Devin."

Namelle laughed, along with Rashelle and Rhemala who were close enough and listening to them. Devin's and Brannin's faces turned red with embarrassment. Serdren smiled and even Alaria looked amused.

The merchants left them the next morning, taking to the road early as the sun was rising. Devin and Brannin asked her to come with them, gesturing wildly with their hands as they told Namelle what adventures they would have together, exploring the waste, seeing the great fort towns of Shara, the Cliffs of Dawn and the Great Rift, how they could travel to the islands of the People of the Sea and see the great hand on Tremalking. Namelle refused, blushing furiously at the amount of attention she was receiving from the twins. She hadn't realised what an affect her flirting had had on the brothers. Some of the merchants looked forlorn as they bade farewell to the Aes Sedai, never knowing their true nature. At the head of the caravan, Serdren Finn was sitting astride his horse, waiting impatiently for the twins and the remaining stragglers to join the wagons. Namelle noticed that Alaria was looking after Serdren with concern, a frown marring her forehead.

It had now been four days since the attack and Jed still showed no signs of waking. Two more days, according to Salarme, and he would not wake. Uncomfortably facing Namelle the second night she had explained in more detail that every day his chances of recovery lessened and he would grow further from waking. She believed that after the sixth day, despite the water and soup Namelle fed him, his body would be too weak. After they reached that point of no return his body would begin to shut down, maybe over weeks, even a month unless they did something to quicken his death first. Salarme believed that they should end his life themselves if he did not wake up himself. Rashelle again mentioned Healing but Salarme quickly discouraged the idea.

"Healing him would require that there be an injury or sickness to Heal, Rashelle," Salarme stated, "and in the boy's case I have already done everything I can. His body is perfectly healthy, which is remarkable considering the condition he was in when we began. Already hungry and hardly a night's rest, not to mention his previous injuries that I was ordered not to Heal fully," she said, looking at both Rashelle and Namelle.

She glanced at Alaria, who was busy readying her horse and seemingly staring at nothing. "I would not mention this to the others," Salarme whispered to them, "but I believe that _saidin_ may have Healed the boy's physical wounds and replaced his hunger while I was weaving the web to expel the poison of the blade from him." She shuddered as she mentioned the male half of the source and Namelle felt a shiver run down her spine as well. Rashelle seemed unaffected by it.

Namelle frowned. "I thought you...used it, along with _saidar_ to Heal him," she said uncertainly. She had been able to see the glow around them, faintly, but had not been able to see the flows.

Salarme frowned and shook her head. "No, I tried not to even feel it; it was so alien and chaotic. And the _taint..!_" she paled and looked ready to throw up. "_Saidin_ seemed to wind itself around my weave of its own will, pushing it away and sealing the wound itself."

"So _saidin_ replaced his hunger and Healed his physical wounds. I noticed that there wasn't even a scar, though the wound was deep enough that it should have caused one even after Healing," Rashelle mused.

"My point is," Salarme said, "if I try to Heal him again it may weaken his body further. He will wake up on his own or die," she said firmly, causing Rashelle and herself to flinch.

They did not speak of Healing Jed again; in fact the whole group seemed somewhat subdued, only speaking to each other in passing or to ask Namelle to pass a waterskin from the cart. As another day passed Namelle grew more uneasy, keeping a constant eye on Jed, praying that he would wake soon. It had now been five days since the attack; another day and Salarme said she would give him a dose of something called Asping rot; she said it would be a peaceful way to die, painless and quick. As they travelled Namelle examined the countryside, Jed, counted the trees, anything to avoid the gaping hole in her mind. Rashelle must have seen her anguish because she climbed from her horse to the cart, secured the horse and offered to play Cat's Cradle with her for a while. Namelle lost herself in the game, forgetting about the absence of _saidar_ and Jed and everything for a while. It came as a surprise to her and Rashelle when the cart halted and they looked up to find sun setting over the horizon and the Aes Sedai setting up the camp. Namelle unloaded Jed's and her own pack while Rashelle lifted him out of the cart with the Power, laying him carefully on the blankets that Namelle hastily put down under an old yew tree. Branches and kindling gathered with the Power went into a pile nearby and Namelle was amused to see Rhemala striking flint over the kindling before Tomeine snorted and, rolling her eyes, looked intently at the wood. Namelle saw a faint glow as Tomeine embraced the source before the wood suddenly burst into flames. Rhemala yelped and fell back on her ear looking startled. Everybody laughed at the look of startled outrage on her face as she demanded to know who had done that. Tomeine tried to look all innocent with a _'Who, me?'_ expression on her face. Later that night, after Namelle had fed Jed carefully with a spoon and done her best to wash his face and arms-she was not going to clean anything else thank you very much when Rashelle, frowning strangely at her, enquired as to where else she would take her cloth-she sat by Jed listening to the others speaking. Rashelle looked over at her, probably feeling sorry for her sitting alone way over here, and stood and walked over to her, sitting and arranging her skirts before speaking.

"You like him don't you," she said. It wasn't really a question and Namelle felt a blush rising in her cheeks.

"I need him," she replied, thinking furiously. She had learned the day after her Stilling that she could lie again when Tarnia had asked her if she was feeling well when of course she wasn't. She had just been _'Stilled!'_ and she'd immediately snapped that she was fine, not really thinking about her answer. She decided not to lie to Rashelle; besides, she would probably know. She didn't have to tell her the whole truth though.

"He said that he would teach me the sword in payment for what he did, and since I cannot use the Power," she barely stumbled over the word anymore, "to defend myself, being able to fight with weapons will be useful if I am ever attacked."

"That is not what I meant and you know it Namelle," Rashelle said frostily.

Namelle sighed. "Yes," she said, looking at Jed's sleeping form, "I like him."

"Then it seems that we have a problem," Rashelle said, also looking at him. "He is a blademaster," she whispered, reaching out a hand to smooth back his hair, "and I intend to bond him as soon as he has been dealt with in the Tower."

Namelle stiffened, looking at Rashelle and feeling anger beginning to boil inside of her. "That is one thing we have always been disgusted by," she hissed, glaring at Rashelle, "that you and the other Ajahs would forcibly bond a man whether or not he wanted it. Unlike popular opinion among the rest of you, one of the main reasons the first representatives of the Red Ajah forbade all who followed them from bonding men to our service was because in nearly all cases the man was given no choice and afterward, if he tried to leave anyway, his Aes Sedai would use the bond to compel him to do her bidding." Rashelle's eyes darkened at that.

"It is our right to take men into our service. We are Aes Sedai. The advantages of the Warder bond far outweigh the costs!" Rashelle whispered furiously.

"You cannot have him, Rashelle," Namelle started, but she was unable to finish. At that moment Jed suddenly convulsed, his back arching and his eyes wide. His mouth was open in a silent scream as his blankets flew off his body. The ground shook and a fierce wind suddenly shrieked through the trees around them, throwing the camp into disarray. The fire, which had moments before been crackling happily, suddenly roared upwards and the water boiling in a pot over the flames hissed as steam rose quickly above the camp, freezing suddenly and falling back as snow. Namelle sat there shocked, everything happening within moments of Jed's convulsions. Rashelle embraced the source, and the women around the fire jumped back from the flames, falling to the ground. They realised what was happening and scrambled to their feet, rushing over to stand beside Rashelle, around all of them a faint glow that Namelle could barely see. Suddenly the ground around Jed rose and fell, throwing her into the air. The Aes Sedai lost their footing and fell but were suddenly sent flying through the air by something invisible. Namelle looked down at Jed, terrified as she tried to keep her footing on the quaking earth. Dark clouds had begun to form in the sky and lightning struck a tree to her right, cleaving it in two. She saw to her horror that Jed's eyes had closed, though he was still screaming silently. The ground convulsed again and Namelle screamed as she fell beside him, something jarring her elbow as a rock struck her head. Pain filled her as she began to black out. The last thing she saw as her vision faded was lightning striking down from black clouds swollen with water and trees and rocks crashing to the ground around her.


	4. Chapter 4

The campsite was a mess. Fallen rocks and trees were strewn everywhere and there were small, blackened holes in the earth for hundreds of paces around him where his lightning strikes must have struck the earth. Several trees were nothing but charred remains or had been cloven in two. Strangely, despite the damage to the forest all around him the yew tree he had been placed under had survived without damage, aside from a few broken branches where rocks had fallen past or where the wind had rushed in. The Al'sieta Sedai were cleaning up the mess he had made of their clothes. They were covered in mud and leaves, and they had been thrown into the middle of a rainstorm that Jed had created while he was still somewhere between conscious and unconscious. He head still hurt where Namelle had elbowed him when she had fallen after he apparently lifted the earth and dropped it from underneath her. He thought back to the reason this had all happened. He had been beginning to wake, he thought, but had tried to return to the Dream, to force it into happening. The resulting pain had been unlike anything Jed had experienced before, endless pain that burned through every particle of his being, his body, his soul. Dimly he had felt _saidin_ calling to him and had reached out blindly to grasp it, anything to relieve the pain. He had been unable to control it however. The raw power that had surged through him had had nowhere to go and had continued to build as he drew more and more in a futile effort to overcome the pain caused by his attempt to Dream. Somehow he had managed to release it, not knowing or caring where it was going, as long as it was away from him. Despite the pure ecstasy of holding the Power, the amount had caused him almost as much pain as whatever had happened when he tried to force the Dream to return.

Jed shook his head, grimacing slowly as he watched the Reds and Rashelle emerging from behind the rocks that he had upturned, completely clean and wearing new clothes but looking very angry. Jed glanced at Tarnia, Tomeine and Rhemala, who were maintaining his shield and already clean. They had cleaned themselves first while the others kept him shielded and reversed roles when they were done. He had awakened some time ago while Rashelle and the other Reds were cleaning themselves, and Rhemala had told him what had happened, that he had been poisoned by a myrddraal's blade and they had had to Heal him, that he had been asleep for over five days now, drifting closer to death with each passing moment. He had shivered at that. Tomeine, her face burning with anger, had explained why the camp looked as if a man had channelled there. Jed found some amusement in that, until he saw the fissure that had opened at some point before he was fully knocked unconscious. He looked over at it now, a black scar in the earth that stretched from him into the trees as far as he could see. Jed had been awake for maybe an hour or so and occasionally the earth rumbled slightly. Every time it did the women looked at him fearfully and not without a good deal of anger in their eyes. Namelle, the only one who had not been covered in mud, was resting in the cart. She had been Healed by Salarme after receiving a fractured skull from a rock. Jed regretted what had happened, especially since this would be the second time he had hurt her in just over two weeks. Two injuries in twenty days, though he could do nothing for the first. Jed looked up as Alaria, Rashelle and the others stopped in front of him. Usually, Jed prided himself on being able to stare down any Al'sieta Sedai, but right at that moment they were not Aes Sedai, instead Jed saw, including the three holding his shield, eight very angry women. He stood quickly, brushing his coat as he opened his mouth to apologise, say I-told-you-so, anything to break the silence. Alaria stepped up to him and suddenly Jed's face was burning, his eyes clearing. Alaria let her hand fall to her side and stepped away, moving to her horse and mounting it before looking over at him again. She had slapped him! Katerine stepped forward and raised her hand. _Oh,_ Jed had time to think, before her slap to his face sent him staggering. Jed raised his arm to prevent more blows for a moment before lowering it. He deserved this, he realised. If they had used to power then he would have attempted to stop them but they had not, which meant that they were doing this not as Aes Sedai punishing a man who could channel, but as women who had been wronged by a man. Elena stepped forward, and Jed closed his eyes before facing her.

An hour later Jed sat in the cart, his face burning and his jaw aching; Salarme had a strong hand and she had almost sent him to his knees. Rashelle had looked thunderous and _had_ knocked him to his knees. Strangely though, he had caught her smiling slightly as she looked down at him. The smile had quickly had him jumping to his feet again. Now, Jed watched Namelle silently while she ignored him completely, examining the woodwork, talking to Rhemala, not even looking at him when he tried to apologise for hurting her again. She kept his swords close to her though, looking at them every now and then in determination. Jed supposed that she had decided to use them to fill the void left by _saidar_, or she could just have been trying to irritate him by reminding him that he had given them to her and offered to teach her the sword. Countless years of experience and whenever he thought he had learned a bit more women seemed to surprise him all over again. He tried again.

"Namelle, please, I am sorry for what happened. I was still asleep. I did not know what I was doing," he pleaded. She just sniffed, and started playing Cat's Cradle with herself. Jed gave up, lifting his shoulders in defeat and turned to Rashelle, riding on his right.

"Would you mind if I walked for a while?" he asked her. She looked at him a moment before speaking.

"Wait for a moment," she finally said, heeling her horse forward to speak with Alaria. They looked back at him and Alaria nodded. Rashelle came back and said that he could. Jed jumped out of the cart and stretched his legs, falling into step between the cart and Rashelle on her horse.

"What do you intend to do once you have been taken to Tar Valon?" she asked.

Jed looked at her, surprised. "I do not suppose that I will want to do anything."

"Surely you must be thinking of escape though."

"Yes," he said carefully. They would expect him to try to escape so he might as well admit to thinking about it. "But what would be the point," he said.

"What do you mean?" Rashelle asked, frowning.

Jed though carefully before replying, "Even if I managed to escape, where would I go?" he asked. Where could he go? _The waste,_ the words drifted up from his memory. It had only been a few days ago but already it felt like months since he had met that Aiel Wise One in his dreams.

Rashelle frowned, deeper this time, as if that was not the answer she was looking for. She could know, could she? No, it was impossible. _She must be thinking of something else._

"Surely you can be more imaginative than that", she said, looking down at him. The gleam in her eyes was...possessive.

"I suppose my only choices would be to go somewhere you would not follow, or to prevent you from following me." The others were listening, he could tell, the way their heads were cocked in his direction.

"Let us assume for a moment that you do escape, where could you possibly go where the White Tower wouldn't find you?" she asked.

Jed smiled slightly. "The Blight," he said.

Rashelle looked at him sharply and the others looked at him sharply. "And who would you go there?" Rashelle whispered dangerously.

"Would you want to track a man through that place?" he asked. Jed had been to the blight, he had seen the affect the Light-cursed place had on people. He had decided long ago that if he ever felt himself succumbing to the taint he would go to the blight and fight there until he was killed by the shadowspawn creatures that inhabited it.

Rashelle shook her head before catching herself. "There you could be taken by myrddraal and turned," she said, looking at him. Alaria and the others looked at her sharply.

"That would only be if the rumours of the continued existence of the Black Ajah are true," Jed said softly, staring first at Rashelle and then at the others. They looked away, one by one. "Are they," he asked, "are they true?"

"Maybe," Rashelle said mysteriously. "We do not know, but we suspect not all of the...women, who served the Dark joined the male dreadlords during the Wars."

"Only the Green and the White still believe those foolish tales," Alaria said, certainty filling her voice with confidence. "The Black was eradicated as the Wars ended."

"Still," Namelle said, finally deeming to speak, though not to him, "there are no doubt wilders and men who have sworn to the Shadow still out there, biding their time." She did not look at Jed, but spoke instead to Rashelle, looking over his head. Rashelle looked at Jed, completely ignoring everyone else.

"What would you do if you escaped us, only to realise that the taint was beginning to overcome you?" she asked. She looked curious, if a bit pale at the thought of the taint. The others turned to look at him, not even trying hiding their eavesdropping. He looked around at them and decided to speak the truth, at least in this.

"If I feel the taint beginning to affect me I will go to the blight," he said.

"Why," Katerine said sharply, Tomeine and Rashelle looking at him suspiciously. Alaria just looked fascinated while Namelle and the others paled.

"If I begin to succumb to the taint, I will go the blight and I will burn it," he said, feeling excited at the prospect. His voice strengthened as he revealed what he would do, and their eyes widened at the expression on his face, the cold light in his eyes. "I will no longer need to hide what I am, no longer need to limit the amount of _saidin_ that I draw and I will direct it all into burning everything within sight. By the Light and my hope of Salvation and Rebirth I will tear the Blight apart before I die." The women looked shocked, and there was silence in the land around them, as if the world itself was shocked at his announcement. Of all of them, strangely it was Tarnia who recovered first.

"Well, as much as it would please both the Tower and the borderlanders for the blight to burn, you know that once you go insane you will no longer be in control of your actions. You could well stray into the southlands, destroying everything in your path before we would be able to stop you," she said. Jed smiled.

"Do you recall the time, about thirty years ago now, when Borderland scouts reported that they had seen great flashes of light in the blight to the west of Tarwin's Gap?" The women looked at each other uncertainly, before Tarnia nodded.

"I remember," she said. "I was in the Seven Towers on a diplomatic mission from the Tower-the King's youngest son could channel-when a messenger came with news that flashes of light had been seen from one of the Blightborder Towers. I along with several other sisters at the time joined the King's legion to investigate the place where the flashes had been seen, just south of the Mountains of Dhoom. We found only a lake of glass and burnt land," she said.

"The scouts saw someone, didn't they?" Jed asked. "They saw a figure on the other side of the glass fields."

"Yes," Tarnia's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that? Nobody was supposed to find out that something had been found."

I knew a man, a soldier in the legion that went north," Jed lied, "After a few drinks he told me what he had seen." Jed paused. "I learned later on that a man on the edge of madness went north to the blight and that he did not go alone. I have friends among the towns and cities of the north; some know what I am, most do not and I was able to piece together what I believe happened." They all looked at him expectantly. "I learned that two men went north to the blight that day, one looked half-mad with missing fingers and scabs on his skin and the other was younger and healthy, wearing brown clothes and a black cloak. I learned that the young man returned but the older man did not. My contacts told me that the flashes began a few hours after the two men were seen entering the blight by a guard at one of the Blightborder towers. The man I spoke to, who had been in the legion, described what the man the scout had seen on the other side of the glass fields looked like. He said that at that distance the scout hadn't been able to make out his features but could confirm that he was wearing brown clothes with a black cloak and that he had black hair. The same man was described as the younger of the two men who came out of the blight a few days later."

"You think that the two men were able to channel?" Alaria asked.

"Yes," Jed said, looking at her. "I believe that the younger man took the older into the blight to die, that the older released his Power on the blight and the younger was there to make sure he died and did not come back south." The women looked at him. "I look for people like myself so that I can either stop them from channelling or, if they have already begun, shield them before the Tower can get to them. I always knot the webs in such a way that the men can never channel again, but I leave them with the hope that they can one day untie the web, keeping them alive." The women looked at him with different expressions, Rashelle looking possessive again for some reason, Namelle and Tarnia both looking proud and the others mostly looked at him with disgusted incredulity.

"That is a lot of speculation and not much evidence," Tomeine started. Jed interrupted her, walking around a small hole in the road.

"I know, but even if it is mostly my own imagination that is what I decided I would do if the taint ever began to overcome me." He paused. "Of course, that does not seem likely now."

"You will not escape us," Alaria said firmly.

"And if you try, I shall be forced to return to your daily punishments," Katerine said. From the look on her face she dearly wanted him to attempt it. Well, he would just have to give her what she wanted; but not yet.

"We are going too slowly," Alaria announced, "at this rate we will not reach the Tower before the first snows, and we have not even reached Jaroncen yet." She looked at Jed. "Back on the cart," she said, pointing. Jed sighed, but complied. So he would not be slowing them down anymore. Perhaps he could cause a commotion in the town that would allow him to escape. He smiled inwardly at the thought of the looks on their faces if he disappeared while they were at the inn. Even in disguise the Al'sieta Sedai would never stay in a second-class inn and would choose only the best. His back and rear began to ache as the cart and horses picked up speed, bouncing along the road to Jaroncen.

Over the next four days the Reds moved quickly, rising early, before the sun rose and not stopping until it was too dark to lead the horses further. They continued to set up wards around the campsite, and now that Jed was awake again, two of the Reds always kept a close eye on him, at least one always maintaining his shield. Jed noticed that even when one was holding the shield there were still seven hard points around the edges, along with the expected one soft remaining. Namelle asked him to begin teaching her the sword the day after he woke, finally speaking to him. Jed noticed that she still hadn't forgiven him for knocking her out though, which was troubling. The Reds and Rashelle watched the first time he began teaching Namelle, most curious despite a few sneers. Surprisingly, Rashelle also asked him to teach her how to handle a sword as well, saying that it would come in useful if she was ever unable to embrace the source. Jed didn't think he was supposed to have seen but, out of the corner of his eye, whenever they thought he wasn't looking Namelle glared daggers at Rashelle and Rashelle just smiled back, looking triumphant of all things. Women; he never had and never would understand them.

Four days after Jed awoke they reached Jaroncen. It was as Jed had seen it in the World of Dreams though there were several new buildings that he had not seen the last time he had been here in the flesh. The town, unlike borderland towns further north, did not have a stone wall circling it. Instead it was arranged as towns and villages were in the nations just south of the borderlands, with a deep moat filled with stakes around the original inner town and another moat four hundred paces outside of the first circle, this one filled with water with stakes on the outside. The moats would be roughly fifty paces across all the way around the town, with two bridges that could be quickly dismantled in the event of an attack, one on the west and the other on the east side. The Border Road ran straight through the town, shearing it in half, and the roads were arranged in crescents around the town square. Jed noticed that several new buildings were outside the outer moat and the trees had been cut down to almost a mile away from the village. Plans for a new moat were laid out; more stakes were being placed and men were digging into the earth near the road in a great third circle around the town. There were already eight watchtowers within the border of the town, inside the safety of each moat facing north, south, east and west. The innermost watchtowers were tall and made of stone, the four within the border of the second moat were stone bases with wooden frames going up to a platform high above the town. The stone foundations for another tower were being constructed by the side of the road as the party of Reds, Rashelle and Jed rode by. It looked as if they had come to the town during one of its expansion phases. The last time Jed had seen Jaroncen it had had only two circles, all the buildings inside and a wall being demolished within the first circle. Now there were buildings outside the second and a moat was being placed further down the road behind them. There was a guardhouse, an inn, several houses, one still under construction gathered around the west bridge to the outer circle which would probably be known as the second circle from now on. There were probably more buildings around the east bridge and others going up elsewhere around the town. Jaroncen was situated right on the border between Basharande and Elsalam and had been founded after the two nations were formed from the ruins of Jaramide and Aramaelle after the end of the Trolloc Wars five hundred years ago. Jaramide had been unable to hold together and had fallen apart to be reconstructed into the kingdoms of Abayan, Oman Dashar, Indrahar and Basharande. The people of Jaroncen descended from farmers, soldiers and traders who came together at the new border from both of the new nations and were now of both nations and none. Their town's laws were a mix of both Elsalam and Basharande and it was almost a tiny nation of its own, the people calling themselves Jaronens rather than Basharandeans or Elsalam.

The party rode by the guardhouse, not drawing the attention of the guards. Jed's sword was in its sheath by his side and he had donned his cloak after they came within sight of the town but swords were a common sight in any borderland town. The Reds rode proudly along the busy road, here called the High Street where the road ran through the town. Jed knew which inn they were heading for. It was one of the grandest and oldest buildings in the town at five stories high and made of bluish-grey stone. All of the stone buildings in the inner circle were made of bluish stone that was taken from one of the Ogier-built cities lost in the Wars. The inn was called The Gnashing Barman. Jed rather though the name had originally been called the Nashebar, after one of the cities of Jaramide. Not much was known about the city except that many of its palaces had been 'blue, like the summer sky' one of the old scrolls of the library of Al'cair'rahienallen said. The main reason he thought this was because the picture over the name featured a city of blue palaces and towers in a sunset, rather than a picture of a barman gnashing his teeth.

The group led the cart and horses to the stables around the back of the inn and Alaria sent Rashelle and Rhemala to find out if there were any guards they could hire in the town. Plainly they meant to avoid another incident such as the trolloc attack the night he was injured. They must have lost almost a week already, much to the relief and continued annoyance of Alaria.

"Tomeine, Tarnia, keep an eye on our 'guard' while I get us some rooms." Tomeine and Tarnia nodded, stepping up beside Jed. They had agreed on the cover story earlier that day. The women were traders from Tar Valon, Jed would be the only surviving guard of a trolloc raid on their caravan a month earlier, and they were here to hire guards before returning to the city. Since Jed was a blademaster there was no need for them to explain why he was the only guard to have survived and for any lying that needed to be done, Jed would do it or Alaria threatened that she would let Katerine have him for the remainder of their trip to the Tower. How lucky for him.

Jed turned to Tomeine and asked, "Mistress Tomeine, would you mind if I retrieve my possessions from the cart before we go to our rooms?" He had been perfectly polite and all servant asking a favour of his mistress but Tomeine still grimaced before replying.

"Of course, Guardsman Jedwyn," she replied. Jed had informed them that he had been a guard once while he was hiding from some Red sisters in the Shandalle Royal Palace, so they could safely use the title guardsman without choking their lungs up trying to lie. Jed smiled his thanks at her and took his pack from the cart. He looked at Namelle, standing there under the weight of her saddlebags and personal items picked up on her travels. He sighed and took the bags from her, hefting the saddle onto his shoulders with a grunt. Namelle, fitting her new station as one not Aes Sedai, had taken on the role of a servant. She smiled thankfully at Jed.

"Where are the swords?" he asked her.

"Here," she said, patting a bundle still in the cart. Jed nodded.

"Good," he said. "If you would pass them to me, it would be best if I carry them into the inn. Seeing a woman carrying swords here will draw attention to us." Namelle frowned and lifted her chin, straining for height as she tried to look him in the eyes.

"Women in Ebou Dar carry weapons all the time," she said stubbornly, "so why can I not carry them here?"

"Firstly," Jed said impatiently, beginning to feel the weight of the saddlebags, "because we are not in Ebou Dar, and secondly because you have not yet earned the right to carry a sword. You are learning," he said more kindly when her face fell, "but until I am sure that you see those swords are a part of you I am afraid that you will not be carrying them on your hip _or_ in a bundle of blankets," He looked meaningfully at the bundle in the cart. Namelle blushed and stopped glaring at him stubbornly.

"Fine," she said, "You can take this bundle up to my room too, guardsman," she said loudly enough for the grooms to hear. Jed grumbled as he picked up the bundle and staggered his way around the building and into the inn. Alaria was finished with the innkeeper and was waiting at the foot of the stairs. The common room was as Jed remembered it, a clear path straight to the stairs with the bar on the left side of the room and tables and chairs spread across the floor. The door to the kitchens was open and Jed's stomach growled as he breathed in the smell of roasting meat.

"Later, guardsman Jedwyn," Namelle said loudly. Jed turned to her questioningly. She smiled mischievously, "I can hear your belly from here and I say later. For now you must take those saddlebags to my room." She was now speaking loudly enough for everyone in the common room to hear her and several heads had turned their way. Tomeine was hiding her mouth behind her hand but her eyes were sparkling with amusement. Tarnia laughed out loud before she could stop herself, but she was still giggling as Jed made his way over to the stairs. Alaria opened her mouth to speak as Jed staggered up to her, a wide smile spreading across her mouth but Jed forestalled her.

"Not one word," he said with a glare. Alaria closed her mouth with a snap but still looked fit to burst from wanting to laugh as she led them up to the third floor. She turned right along the spacious corridor and they walked for a few silent moments before stopping at the door to one of the larger servants' quarters. Namelle opened the door and walked in, gesturing for Jed to follow her. He walked over to the bed and dumped Namelle's saddlebags in a heap. The bundle carrying the swords he laid on the table beneath a mirror. Jed looked up and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, black red-streaked hair and dark eyes staring at him from a handsome face with smooth skin. There was dirt on his forehead and his clothes needed to be cleaned, but apart from a haunted look to his eyes he was fine. He turned away from the mirror to find Namelle staring at him strangely. He shook the thought from his head and walked to the door, Tomeine following him. Namelle spoke before he escaped into the corridor though.

"I want to speak to you before you go, Jedwyn," she said from behind him. Jed groaned, his shoulders drooping and turned back into the room. "Alone," Namelle said, looking over his shoulder at Tomeine.

"We need to keep an eye on him, Namelle, and you are unfortunately unable to do that anymore," Tarnia said, not unkindly.

Namelle sniffed. "I have been Stilled Tarnia but I am not stupid. You do not need to be able to see him to maintain the shield. Don't worry," she said, "I will scream if he tries to escape." She smiled with mirth. Tarnia nodded and, herding a protesting Tomeine ahead of her, left the room and closed the door. Jed faced Namelle.

"I want to know when we can begin my training again," she said, smoothing her skirts. Somehow, Jed got the impression that wasn't what she had wanted to say, but he answered her anyway.

"It will be difficult," he said, thinking. They would have guards now who would not know who they were. They might be curious as to why he was teaching a servant and a woman no less, how to fight using a sword. "We will have to come up with a reason for you to train."

He thought for a moment. "Ah." Namelle looked at him questioningly. "Simple," Jed said, "we will say that you were unhappy at not being able to do anything when the trollocs attacked and after the other guards were killed we had need of someone else who could handle a sword, so you asked me to train you. How is that?" he asked. Namelle nodded.

"It could work," was all she said.

"Good. So, was there anything else?" he asked. She blushed before replying.

"Yes, actually I-" She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as the door banged open and Rashelle stamped in looking furious. Her face darkened when she saw Jed standing protectively in front of Namelle. When the door burst open he hadn't thought, simply darting between whoever was coming and Namelle. She was more vulnerable now than she realised and would not hesitate to stand up to anyone or anything that might be coming.

"What do you think you are doing!" she almost screamed, glaring at Jed. Suddenly the goosebumps on his arms, which he hadn't noticed in a while now but realised must have been there for days, flared as his clothes were pressed against his body and a force he couldn't see lifted him into the air and slammed him against the wall beside the bed. He looked up in astonishment as Rashelle began to advance on him, lifting her right hand toward his head. He struggled against the shield and the flows of Air but could do nothing. He was helpless! _What is she going to do to me!_

"Stop it Rashelle!" Tarnia yelled, as she ran into the room after the enraged Green. Jed couldn't move any part of his body save his head and he looked around to see Namelle trapped in the corner on the other side of the room. Suddenly the flows holding him disappeared and he dropped to the carpeted floorboards, startled. Tarnia was looking at Rashelle while Tomeine quickly ran to Jed and stared at him. Jed ran straight into the shield as he tried, in that brief moment when Tarnia had let go, to reach the source, but Tomeine got there first, slamming a shield between him and _saidin_ before he could grasp it. Jed cried out in anguish as it was lost to him the moment he had been about to take it. Tomeine sighed in relief before helping Jed to his feet and wrapping his wrists in flows of Air behind his back. His feet suddenly attached themselves to the floor and the flare of anger within him faded when he looked up. Jed understood when Tomeine turned to watch the confrontation between Tarnia and Rashelle and taking her eyes off him to stare, intrigued, at the two women.

Rashelle was facing Tarnia with her hands clasped firmly in front of her and her dress flat against her body. Tarnia was glaring at her angrily. Jed thought that Tarnia must have let go of his shield to shield Rashelle and stop her from doing whatever it was she had been about to do to him. Tomeine might have lost control when Rashelle stormed in but had got to him before he realised that Tarnia had let his shield go.

"What were you thinking, Rashelle?" Tarnia demanded, "Bursting in here like a trolloc and slamming them against the walls. You could have smashed his bones to splinters you foolish child!" Tarnia was red in the face and screaming so loudly it was a wonder Jed couldn't hear the innkeeper pounding on the door. Rashelle's face was wet with tears and she was glaring angrily back at Tarnia. Her mouth was shut though, and white around the lips where Tarnia had obviously wrapped Air around her jaw to stop her from speaking.

"Now," Tarnia said, somewhat less loudly and her voice rough after shouting so loudly, "I am going to let you speak and you are going to give me a _very_ good reason for what you just tried to do." Rashelle's mouth was freed and she opened her mouth before glancing at Jed.

"I...what were _you_ thinking, Tarnia, leaving him alone in here with Namelle?" she asked desperately, her face red with anger. "Look," she said, pointing at the bundle containing the dual-swords beside the bed. "He could have taken them and killed you both before you even realised what was happening. He could have forced Namelle to open the door for him to club you! She might even have done it willingly, the way she acts around him!" Rashelle yelled one excuse after another without pausing for breath. Tarnia's eyebrows were rising higher and higher, until Jed thought that they would disappear into her greying fringe before she stopped being surprised. _The way she acts around me?_ he thought, but shook it away, concentrating on what was happening before him.

Tarnia interrupted Rashelle's tirade. "None of this explains why you were about to-..." She looked sharply at Jed, before glaring at Rashelle. She gulped, beginning to sweat before looking away.

"You saw what happened the day he woke up," she said sullenly, "you were thrown into a tree!" Rashelle stopped, looking desperately into Tarnia's eyes. Tarnia stared back coldly, mercilessly. Finally Rashelle, seeing no quarter in the Red's eyes, said, "He could be made safe, here and now, before we even reach Tar Valon. I can control him," she said quietly. Jed had no idea what they were talking about now but it seemed that the Reds had been just in time if whatever she had been about to do would have put him under her control. Jed felt some amusement at that, though it faded quickly. _Red Ajah to the rescue,_ he thought.

"And what do you think the consequences of such an action would be?" Tarnia asked quietly, looking into Rashelle's eyes. Tears were flowing down her face, her eyes moist. "How could you not think of the consequences?" Tarnia asked again urgently. "The penance you would be set for doing it would be bad enough, but to have to go through _that_," Tarnia whispered. She seemed about to say more but noticed everyone else in the room watching her, and her eyes focused on Jed.

"Get him out of here," she said to Tomeine, "This is not for him to hear." Tomeine nodded and Jed's arms and feet were freed.

"Come along then," she said, tugging at Jed's arm. He looked at her, confused, before glancing at Tarnia and Rashelle and moving to the door.

"Jed." The word stopped him in his tracks. He turned to look back at Rashelle. She looked up at him from where she had sat next to Tarnia and Namelle at the small table in the room. Namelle looked furious and kept glaring at Rashelle, her hands twitching, but Rashelle ignored her, focusing instead on Jed.

"I'm sorry, Jed," she said, sounding sincere. She looked up at him pleadingly. "Please say you will forgive me?" She looked so upset that Jed could not help but feel sorry for her. Whatever she had been about to do she had been thinking only of her Sisters safety and, truth to tell, Jed might well have done the same had their roles been reversed and _his_ friend had been alone in a room with someone who had torn apart their campsite while having a bad dream.

Jed nodded at her, managing a smile. "I forgive you, Rashelle Damroden," he said, before turning and walking from the room.

* * *

><p>Namelle watched Jed leave the room. Tomeine walked out behind him and closed the door quietly. Namelle heard their footsteps fade down the corridor before she turned her head and looked at Rashelle. The other woman was sitting there sulkily, glaring at the tabletop and clasping her hands together. Namelle had seen that look in the eyes of Accepted about to be raised to the shawl before, mostly women who became Greens or Yellows. Women who were afraid, not that they were about to become Aes Sedai but that another would get to the man they wanted to bond before they could. It was one of the reasons Namelle had chosen the Red Ajah, so that she would never have to experience the jealousy and worry that the others held for their warders. She snorted softly. She had never believed she might end up in a situation like this one, either. Tarnia kept glancing from Namelle to Rashelle thoughtfully, her lips pursed and her brow furrowed. Her curious glances at Namelle were becoming quite irritating. Tarnia opened her mouth to speak.<p>

"We need to discuss what happened," she stated. Rashelle stirred and looked up from the table to dart a nervous look at Tarnia and a venomous one at Namelle. Namelle returned her glare with one of her own. How _dare_ she barge in like that and throw them around like dolls. For the first time Namelle knew what it must be like for men or even women to be around someone who can channel. They were helpless, unable to fight back and incapable of doing anything if the channeller decided to use the Power against them. It was no wonder Aes Sedai had nearly always had to force warriors into becoming warders, though more men accepted the bond willingly now than they had before the Trolloc Wars. Namelle spoke before Rashelle had a chance to defend herself.

"There was no cause for the way _she_ acted, Tarnia," Namelle said, not even looking at Rashelle. "She had no reason to believe that he would try anything here. I have taken part in six captures of men who could channel and I know how to deal with them." She held up a hand when Rashelle tried to say something and Tarnia's face filled with pity, "even without the Power," Namelle finished. At that moment Namelle heard voices outside the door before Alaria, Katerine, Salarme and Elena entered the room. Alaria looked furious, as did Salarme and Elena but Namelle wasn't surprised to see that Katerine seemed quite happy though she was obviously trying to hide it. Namelle noted the absence of Rhemala and supposed that she was still maintaining Jed's shield along with Tomeine. And probably having a good long chat with him as well; she had always been odd, nothing like the rest of them. She had continually tried to study and talk to the men they captured, learning about them and how they began channelling, what it was like touching the male half of the source and the way the taint felt when they grasped the Power. Namelle had thought her insane until she had discovered that Rhemala's brother had been able to channel. All she knew was that the boy had died before they found him. Namelle thought she understood Rhemala now, though she had seen her the way most Reds had before she had been stilled; a Brown in a red shawl. Alaria had her hands on her hips and Namelle knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Well," Alaria said into the silence, "I must admit it took you longer than I thought it would, Rashelle." Namelle's jaw dropped in astonishment and from the corner of her eye she saw that both Tarnia and Rashelle's mouths were also hanging open. Alaria didn't fail to see this and she smiled in amusement.

"Come now," she said, looking at the three of them, and at the women beside her. "You are a new sister of the Green Ajah, Rashelle, what did you think would happen?" She raised her eyebrows at Rashelle, who looked dumbfounded.

"Rashelle attempted to bond the boy, Alaria," Tarnia said fiercely, "and I for one don't think that it's a laughing matter. At all," she added for emphasis. Salarme's eyebrows rose and Elena looked shocked for a moment before hastily assuming a cool expression.

"You did what?" Katerine asked disgustedly. She looked quite ugly when she sneered like that, Namelle thought. She had no more room for Katerine though, as Rashelle spoke.

"As I told Tarnia," she said, shooting Tarnia a resentful glare that would have skinned a myrddraal at fifty paces, "he would be much safer if I was allowed to bond him. I could compel him through the bond and he would be no trouble all the way to Tar Valon," she said stubbornly. Namelle felt sick. She couldn't let this happen.

"You weren't looking to bond him to make him safe!" she almost yelled. "You almost smashed the door down and threw both myself and Jed against the walls like common thieves!" Rashelle flushed a deep red, perhaps in shame but more likely in anger. Namelle had known of her increasing interest in the boy for a while now.

"Jed?" Alaria said softly. Namelle looked at her quickly, noting the dangerous quality to her voice. "I did not know you were on first-name terms with the boy Namelle," she said, looking at her. Namelle swallowed and felt a blush building in her neck. She thought quickly.

"I must speak to him as an equal if he is to teach me the sword," Namelle replied, speaking as quickly as the words formed in her mind. "He is far younger than me, yes," Namelle saw Rashelle shift and look away, "but I can't call him boy without offending him."

Alaria's lips tightened slightly but then she relaxed. "We have accepted that you need to find something to replace...what was lost," she said uncomfortably, "but should you not then call him Blademaster Jedwyn if he is to teach you? Calling him 'Jed' sounds much more...intimate," she said slowly. Katerine smirked. Namelle felt her blush rising.

"It is not your business what Namelle calls him, Alaria," Tarnia spoke up suddenly to her right. "We were discussing Rashelle and her attempt to bond the boy, not Namelle's feelings towards him." Namelle felt a great rush of gratitude toward the older woman, and inclined her head slightly in thanks.

"Yes, of course," Alaria said.

"This cannot be allowed," Katerine snarled, anger twisting her features. "It is disgusting. It is an abomination! We cannot permit this." Namelle thought she was speaking about Rashelle but found to her great surprise that Katerine was glaring at _her_.

"What?" she asked. This was startling.

"You were of the _Red_ Ajah, Namelle! The Red! How can you turn your back on everything that means so quickly?" Namelle and Katerine had never been close, in fact Namelle didn't believe she had any friends at all but this was downright insulting.

"I was stilled, Katerine! I thought you would understand that above all others. I need to find something or I'll die!" she shouted. Katerine winced but shouted right back.

"Then leave," she hissed, pointing at the door. "Go and find a hole to hide in like a good girl. Why can't you just go away like all the others, men and women both!" This stung more than anything Namelle could have done herself. The hole in her mind seemed to gape wider than ever and for a moment she wondered what the point of going was on. Why should she bother? _Jed_, a little voice in her mind whispered. Namelle took strength from that voice and shook out of her wandering thoughts. She looked up to find Salarme standing over her, Tarnia at her side. Katerine was gone and the others were avoiding Namelle's eye.

"How long?" she asked. No need to explain for Salarme answered instantly.

"Only a few minutes," she said. "Katerine has been punished and will not bother you again." Namelle sighed and smiled up at Salarme in gratitude. "Thank you from bringing me back," she said.

"Oh, it wasn't me," Salarme said surprisingly. "There is almost nothing to be done when one is...stilled, but when you went blank like that I thought the worst." Salarme turned away and sat down next to the bed. Tarnia remained. She looked at Namelle for a time before speaking.

"Something must have brought you out of that trance," she said. "I have seen men like that before and they never survive long or do much of anything afterward." She looked thoughtfully at Namelle for a moment.

"Come," she said. "We need to rejoin the others if we are to stop Rashelle bonding the boy before dawn." Namelle nodded and stood, walking over to the circle of chairs where the others had sat while she was occupied trying to survive.

"Have you thought f the consequences for bonding this man before we reach the Tower?" Elena was asking.

"Of course," Rashelle retorted. "I know what is going to happen."

"But do you have any idea of what it will be like to feel it?" Alaria said. "You will feel everything he feels while he is being gentled."

"You might even try to stop us," Katerine added harshly. "Light knows you Greens are possessive enough of your warders, but you haven't even been Aes Sedai for a year yet."

"I would never betray the Tower," Rashelle said fiercely. "I've already told you, I can handle it." Namelle noted that Alaria seemed to actually be considering letting Rashelle bond Jed. She felt a surge of panic.

"You can't let her do this, Alaria!" Namelle cried.

Alaria turned to face her. Katerine sneered but remained quiet.

"And why not?" Alaria asked. "We do not bond men and you cannot bond the boy." Namelle winced. "If Rashelle bonds him she can control him, if we can control him there will be no more attempts to escape or unexpected storms," she finished wryly.

"But he can channel," Namelle said desperately. "We cannot know what kind of affect the bond will have on him, she might not even be able to control him at all!"

"I can control him," Rashelle almost shouted at her. Alaria looked thoughtful. Namelle looked to Tarnia for help.

"What of the shield?" Tarnia asked. The others looked at her with confusion. Namelle was confused as well. What did the shield have to do with this? Tarnia looked around at them all. "The ability to touch the source is in the mind," she said, "the shield is placed in the mind and so is the bond." Alaria looked at Salarme.

"Well?" she asked.

Salarme nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, of course. The webs for the shield and the bond may combine, and there is no way to know what affect that will have." Tarnia snorted in agreement.

"The two webs joining or even touching each other, however indirectly, could cause any number of problems." Tarnia looked round at them all. "I knew a novice when I was younger, who told me a story of an Aes Sedai who mixed two different webs containing spirit together and caused an explosion much like one that we were taught can happen if we attempt to unravel a web." There was a collective intake of breath. Unravelling webs was dangerous and forbidden. Records from the library stated that not even the Aes Sedai of old, before the War of the Shadow, had unravelled webs. The few remaining books on channelling from the Age of Legends all agreed that unravelling webs was an unpredictable and very stupid thing to attempt to do. The results of failure were never the same but almost always very bad for the one trying to accomplish it.

"You see why it would be unwise to bond the boy before we reach the Tower," said Tarnia.

"We can release the shield holding him while I bond him," said Rashelle hopefully.

"No," said Alaria. Rashelle began to argue but Alaria held up her hand, stopping her. "No," she said again, "I will not risk another incident like the last and that is final." Rashelle frowned.

"But what if there is another," Elena said. There was quiet in the room for a moment.

"I would only need a moment," Rashelle said eagerly. "I could prepare the web and hold his head before you let go of the shield holding him. All I need is a few seconds without him realising he is free to bond him."

"While he sleeps," Elena said. Rashelle nodded in agreement.

"No!" Namelle said loudly. The others looked at her, their decision made. It was time to try something desperate. "At least wait until after we reach the Tower," she begged.

"He might escape by then," said Rashelle loudly, glaring at Namelle. There was another silence before Alaria spoke.

"The idea of an Aes Sedai bonding a man who can channel is horrifying to me," said Alaria. Katerine nodded quickly in agreement, her mouth tight with distaste. "So, unless there is another incident along the road, Rashelle, you will not be allowed to bond him before we reach the Tower." Rashelle tried to speak. "But," Alaria said quickly, "after that he is yours. It may even save his life." Rashelle grinned in triumph. Namelle deflated, feeling lost.

"May I at least continue to learn the sword from him until we reach the Tower?" Namelle asked. Rashelle grimaced and answered immediately.

"No," she said.

"He is not yours yet," Tarnia said, looking at Rashelle scathingly. Rashelle blushed and settled back in her chair.

"He will be," she said in satisfaction.

"Please, Alaria," Namelle asked. "I feel more whole when I am near him. When he is teaching me I almost never notice the hole." Alaria and the others winced.

"It would be fair, Alaria," said Salarme.

"Yes," Tarnia said. "We cannot doom Namelle for the sake of Rashelle's pride." Rashelle gave an indignant squawk.

Alaria looked at them, then at Namelle. "Very well," she said, "you may continue to learn from him, but," here she looked at Rashelle, who was beginning to look angry again, "after he has been bonded you are to stay away from him." Namelle set her jaw stubbornly.

"I will not debate this," Alaria said firmly, "whether he is bonded after we reach Tar Valon or before you will not approach him for anything. He will truly belong to Rashelle then." Namelle nodded, tears welling up in her eyes.

"If you don't mind," she said, "I would like to rest before tomorrow." Her voice shook slightly and she could feel a tightening in her throat but she held on long enough to see them out of her room before closing the door and throwing herself onto the bed, weeping into her pillow. There had to be a way out of this, there had to. Suddenly she stopped crying, though tears still ran down her cheeks.

"Yes," she whispered. There was a way to stop this, but it would be going against everything she had stood for as an Aes Sedai. _But then_, she thought, _I am no longer Aes Sedai_. Namelle stood and began to pace while she planned.

* * *

><p>In her own room, Rashelle hummed softly to herself. She brushed her hair before setting the brush down on her dresser and sliding under the covers. She really hadn't wanted to act that way in the room, but when she had seen Tomeine and Tarnia standing outside Namelle's room she had had no doubt that Jed was in there. Namelle was by no means an ugly, or even plain, woman. Strangely, since her stilling, Namelle seemed to have become younger and more beautiful. She had not thought before charging in, blinded with anger and jealousy. Only now did Rashelle realise what she had done. Namelle was falling for the boy, Rashelle thought with a twist of her lips. She had noticed it since after the trolloc attack, how Namelle began to blush whenever Jed walked past and how she had started improving her appearance and acting less and less helpless around him. Rashelle had begun feeling closer to him long before Namelle and swore that there had been a spark between them that night she had first seen him in the inn. She had not told the others but there had been a connection, an understanding between the two of them the last time she had seen him before finding out that he had been the one who channelled in Garadrin. She had begun to feel more and more attracted to him and now she was sure that she was falling in love with the boy. Not that she saw him as a boy, no. She had increasingly strong suspicions about his true age. As she drifted off to sleep Rashelle imagined the day she would bond him, dreaming of him, lost and losing the will to live after his gentling, how Rashelle would come to him and take away his pain, giving him a piece of herself, along with her love. She dreamed of him crying with joy and, if not yet in love with her, growing to realise that she was the woman of his dreams over time. Rashelle smiled as she slept.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Jed woke with a start. He looked around the room and sat up. His room was small compared to the ones the Al'sieta Sedai had taken, with a red carpet, small bed and a dresser. There was no window; Alaria had seen to that. His pack and weapons were in the corner behind the door but his sword was beside the head of the bed, ready in case he needed it. Tucked under his pillow was a bronze figurine of a man standing at attention grasping his sword in both hands, hilt at chest-height and blade pointing straight up. It was completely useless to him as long as he was shielded, but he liked to keep it close whenever he could. With a sigh, Jed stood and pulled the figurine out from under his pillow.

"Maybe not the best place to put it," he muttered quietly to himself as he rubbed the back of his neck. Jed dug into his pack and rapped the figurine in his spare small-clothes at the bottom. He reached out to the source and came up against the shield and he found to no surprise that it was still intact and strong; two soft points and six hard.

Jed dressed quickly and opened the door, stepping out into the hall. He was met by Katerine and Elena, who were maintaining his shield. They looked tired, with circles under their eyes. It must have been near the end of their shift when he woke, he thought. Elena looked up at him fearfully from her seat while Katerine sneered sleepily and stood. She didn't say anything but walked across the hall and knocked lightly. Alaria answered, looking pristine. Katerine and Alaria held a hushed conversation until Alaria nodded. She walked over to Jed while Katerine continued down the hall, knocking on the next door. Tarnia answered and looked over at Jed before nodding. She came to stand before Jed also. Katerine and Elena walked away in different directions, Elena staggering slightly. Jed turned to the two reds.

"So," he said, "hungry?" Alaria sniffed, but Tarnia smiled slightly.

"Come," she said. "I'm sure the cook can prepare something."

They walked down the corridor and descended the stairs. The smell of eggs and toasting bread drifted from the kitchen door as Jed and Alaria took their seats at one of the tables by the windows. Jed's stomach rumbled loudly. Alaria smiled, before turning to Tarnia. They began to discuss their plans for recruiting guards for the remainder of the trip. Jed turned and looked out of the window, ignoring them. The sun was already halfway to its zenith and the main road was bustling with people going about their daily chores. Merchants, traders, guardsmen, they were all moving around as if they had not a care in the world. They had no idea that there had been a trolloc raid only a week northwest of their town, or maybe they did know but did not care. The innkeeper moved over to their table.

"What'll it be then?" he asked cheerfully. He was slightly on the large side, as innkeepers should be, with a round, smiling face and a bald spot on top of his head.

"Eggs, cheese and some fruit, if you have any," Jed said. He looked over at Alaria, and she looked at him with an eyebrow raised. Jed sighed inwardly.

"My lady?" he asked.

Alaria's lips twitched briefly before facing the innkeeper. "Eggs," she said.

The innkeeper jotted their orders down and turned to Tarnia. "Just fruit for me, unless you have any bacon?" she asked. The innkeeper smiled widely at her.

"That we do lady, the best from here to Maradon," he stated proudly. As the innkeeper bustled off to the kitchen with their orders Alaria spoke.

"We must speak of your restrictions while we are in this town, Jedwyn," she said, looking at him directly.

"Yes, I thought this might come up," he replied. They were going to confine him, most likely.

"You will not go beyond the borders of the town and you will have one of us with you at all times." Alaria looked at him and Jed tried to keep his thoughts off his face. "You will not leave this inn without at least two of us as an escort and you must ask my permission first."

"Is that all?" Jed asked sarcastically.

"No," Alaria replied frostily. "While we are here you are to act as our guardsman, and you will address us with the respect befitting our station." Jed gritted his teeth.

"Very well," he said, "but to the Pit of Doom with treating you as a superior in private." Alaria's eyes widened and she moved as if to stand before settling back in her chair. Tarnia didn't appear remotely interested in their discussion and was impatiently tapping her fingers against the table surface and looking at the kitchen door.

"As long as nobody hears you addressing us that way you can speak to us as you like, but if you reveal us then you will spend the rest of the trip regretting your decision." Jed looked her in the eyes and saw that she was serious about her threat.

"So you will give me to Katerine, then," he said, looking back out of the window, "if I...misbehave?" Jed smiled.

"Oh, I didn't say anything about handing you over to Katerine," Alaria replied.

"What?" Jed asked in surprise.

"Katerine no longer has claim on you, Guardsman Jedwyn," Alaria finished as the innkeeper came to their table carrying her and Tarnia's orders. Jed narrowed his eyes as he examined Alaria's face for any clues as to what lay in store for him. _What could be worse than being given to Katerine,_ he thought.

"Yours is almost ready, master Jedwyn," the innkeeper said, twisting his hands around the hem of his apron nervously. He kept looking at Jed curiously.

"Is there anything else we can do for you master innkeeper?" Tarnia asked, noticing his interest. The innkeeper jumped slightly, and looked at her apologetically.

"I apologise for my directness, but word has it in the town that you were attacked by a trolloc raid a couple of weeks back," he said. "The innkeeper examined his apron to avoid looking them in the eyes.

"Word has it that you lost almost all your guards, save master Jedwyn here," he said, gesturing to Jed. Jed winced.

"Yes," Alaria said carefully, "we were attacked by a trolloc raid. Guardsman Jedwyn survived." Jed noted her careful avoidance of a lie without revealing too much, and decided that he should take it from there. The fact that Tarnia had just kicked him under the table had nothing to do with it at all.

"You should not need to worry, master...?" The innkeeper gave a start, smiling nervously at him.

"Karl," he said. "Not many ask after my name, most just call me innkeeper," he chuckled to himself.

"Well Karl, you should not need to worry; the attack was leagues from here and we managed to kill most of the filthy creatures before they could overrun us. Jarrod, he fell first. Most of the others died protecting the wagons and the women but Madrin and I managed to finish off the wolfheads. After that the others retreated." Jed remembered Madrin. He had died thirteen years before in an attack by the Enlightened, a radical group of supposed prophets who claimed that anyone who did not swear allegiance to the Light through them was a Darkfriend. They had been wiped out by a band of mercenaries on the pay of the King of Kharendor a year later when they attempted to carve their own kingdom from the lands just south of the Fallen Mountains.

"The wolfheads?" a voice suddenly asked form another table. Jed turned and saw a town guard sitting at the table closest to them. His sword was in its sheath on the table's surface and he was halfway through his morning meal.

"Yes," Jed said, "Why?"

The man dropped his knife and stood, buckling his sword and walking over to their table. He stopped and stood there, examining Jed. The women, he ignored. The innkeeper cleared his throat.

"Lady Alaria, Mistress Tarnia, Master Jedwyn, this is Tarim Azada, captain of the Town Guard." The captain nodded in greeting to each of them, but kept his eyes on Jed.

"A pleasure to meet you," he said. He had upturned almond-shaped blue eyes, black hair and a hooked nose. There were lines around his eyes and mouth, and his hair was beginning to go grey at the temples. He seemed familiar somehow.

"And you," Alaria replied. Tarnia nodded her greeting.

"You mentioned wolfheads, Mater Jedwyn. Might I take then to believe that you have spent time at the Blightborder towers? I have only ever heard soldiers of the Blightborder speak of picking off the wolfheads before." Jed winced inwardly. He should have been more careful, but he had not figured anyone in this town would know or care about why he supposedly went for the wolfheads first.

"Wolfheads? What is the captain talking about, guardsman?" Alaria asked impatiently. Jed turned to face her.

"Trollocs come in different shapes and sizes, my lady," he began. Alaria interrupted him.

"Of course, I know that, but what makes one trolloc any different from another?" she asked.

"It makes every difference, Lady Alaria," Captain Azada said. Jed nodded.

"Trollocs with the features of wolves are usually more intelligent than others of their kind, better able to speak and coordinate their attacks when there is not a myrddraal around to herd them," Jed explained. "Therefore, it is prudent to kill them first as they are the most likely to be the ones giving the orders."

Captain Azada nodded in agreement. "If you spend enough time fighting Shadowspawn you learn to tell the differences between them. Know your enemy," he said, looking down at Jed.

"And you will defeat him," Jed finished the motto of a lost company of Jaramide. Azada smiled slightly.

"I knew it as 'and you can kill him' but I suppose there is little difference in this respect." Azada pulled a chair over and sat at their table. The innkeeper had been pulled away by one of the other tenants, but was back in a few minutes with Jed's meal. "How much time did you spend in the north then?" he asked.

"Enough to know that it will take more than a few dozen Aes Sedai spread across the entire region to hold the Shadow at bay," Jed stated, looking at Alaria and Tarnia from the corner of his eye. Karl nodded in agreement while scanning the room for anyone who needed him.

"Yes, I agree. Them Aes Sedai should be here in the borderlands, helping to keep back the Blight, but they're too busy with their manipulations in the south. I hear things, from the travellers that come through here. People say that there are less Aes Sedai than there used to be, and that they don't care about anything but keeping that shiny Tower of theirs at the centre of the world." Tarnia sniffed quietly, but Alaria's face was frozen in an effort to remain serene.

"I don't know," the captain said, looking into his meal, "I have seen what Aes Sedai can do; walls of fire and explosions of earth. I've seen Aes Sedai save hundreds of men just by being on the battlefield."

"Ah, but were they there by choice Tarim?" Karl asked. "The traders who come through here, many say that the Aes Sedai only come north now to look for their Warders, their Brothers to Battle. People say that if it did not benefit them in some way, they would not come at all."

"I do not believe that is true, Master Karl," Tarnia said suddenly. The innkeeper turned to her with a questioning look in his eyes.

"There has never been any reason not to believe it, Mistress Tarnia," he replied. "Last Aes Sedai who came through here a few months back was on her way to Maradon. She was tight-lipped and curt, treating us all like second-class citizens, and cold-eyed to boot."

"Cold-eyed?" Jed asked. "She was most likely of the white Ajah.

"The White Tower protects and governs the world. If not for the Aes Sedai there would be no borderlands at all," Alaria said. Captain Azada looked at her strangely, before turning to Jed.

"Where were you born, Master Jedwyn?"

Jed started, surprised at the change of subject. "The Land between Two Rivers, in Farashelle." The captain nodded to himself, and turned back to the Al'sieta Sedai.

"Lady Alaria, Mistress Tarnia, I believe that it was your guardsman's ancestors who protected the world, and they never tried to govern or control it, only protect it. Manetheren's armies were at almost every major engagement during the Trolloc Wars." Azada looked around the group. Tarnia looked proud but ashamed. The innkeeper was looking at Jed with a new respect and Alaria had nothing to say, her head down. Finally, Azada turned his gaze back to Jed.

"So you have fought along the Blightborder," he said, bringing the discussion back to Jed. "I'm curious, why would a southlander come to the borderlands to fight Shadowspawn?"

"I came north because I was a foolish child and thought only of adventure. I had a sword, a little money and the stories of my ancestors fresh in my ears. I thought I could become a hero, be known across the lands and eventually return home to raise a family of my own among my friends and admirers." Jed chuckled wryly. "Sadly, it was not to be. Things changed," he said, looking at the Al'sieta Sedai, "I changed."

"Aye," Karl said, "that is what happens to those who go to the Blight looking for adventure. I've seen plenty of young men come through here with bright eyes and a thirst for it." He shook his head sadly. "I remember every face I've ever seen and of the hundreds who pass through Jaroncen on their way north, the few who come back are changed; gaunt cheeks and haunted eyes, but survivors to the core." A tenant across the room called for service and the innkeeper muttered under his breath. "Back to work, I suppose. It was good talking to you; don't get much time for that these days, not since my maids took ill with a cough. It'll be a miracle if they're well before the end of the week," he muttered before moving away.

"Well," said the Captain, sitting back, "I must be off about my duties but if there's anything I can do for you, my lady, be sure to ask." The captain turned to Jed.

"I remember faces almost as well as old Karl there and I always remember the faces of those who have saved my life at one point or another." Jed looked at him, confused. "I was at the battle of the fifth tower many years back, before I was released from service. A Draghkar started singing to me before I could cover my ears. Half the unit was dead already, and we had had to abandon the tower." Azada looked at Jed very carefully, and then nodded. "Thank you for saving us, blademaster." Azada stood and left the building before Jed could say a word. He sat there, shocked. The battle of the fifth tower; that had been a long time ago. He remembered now; he had retreated along with the others, abandoning the tower, and had seen a group of men apparently just standing by their horses some way from the trees while everyone else fled in the direction of the pass to Maradon. The face of a young lieutenant swam into view before him, terrified but grateful as Jed led the remains of his unit to safety. Azada had been his name, called after Jed as he rode east along the Blight. Jed looked up to see Alaria and Tarnia both staring at him from the corners of their eyes while they finished their meals.

"Alaria said, "This may be of advantage to us, your connection to the captain."

"Yes," said Tarnia, looking after the captain, "he may be able to find some trustworthy guardsmen for us. We may yet be able to leave Jaroncen before the week's end." Tarnia turned her head to Jed, a curious light in her eyes. "Tell me, master Jedwyn, how many years has it been since the attack on the fifth tower?" Jed paused, the apple in his hand forgotten. He looked at Tarnia carefully.

"I am sure you already know the answer to that, Mistress Tarnia. It is not well known outside of the borderlands but the Tower has eyes and ears everywhere."

Jed turned to Alaria. "With your permission, I would like to take a walk through the town, Lady Alaria."

"For what reason?" she asked suspiciously.

"I want to visit the market to buy some new bowstrings and goose feathers for fletching. Plus," he added, "It would be good to walk among people again. It has been a while since I was able to walk freely in crowds."

"Very well, Jedwyn, but first we will wait for the others to wake. I do not wish to walk the markets myself, you understand," Alaria said.

"Of course, my Lady," Jed said as a patron walked by their table. The sun had moved more than half a hand-span across the sky before Rhemala descended the stairs looking refreshed and clean in a grey dress with a red sash and a high neckline. _Tower Servants, _Jed thought to himself with a small smile. They could not stop showing their Ajahs even when trying to keep a low profile. At least Rhemala only wore the sash red, but Jed had a feeling Katerine's clothing would be much more extravagant than that. Rhemala looked around the common room, and on spotting them, weaved her way between the tables to their. Jed noted that one of the chairs blocking her path tucked itself under the table as she passed. He didn't feel anything, but his arms were already covered with goosebumps anyway so it made little difference. Jed wondered about that for a moment. Would he eventually stop being able to sense a woman's channelling this way if they were always channelling around him?

"Alaria," Rhemala greeted her, "Tarnia, Jedwyn."

"Ah, Rhemala, perfect timing; I would appreciate it very much if you could take over for me and a join master Jedwyn and Tarnia for their stroll in the market." Rhemala caught on at once of course. Alaria wanted her to take over part of the shield and follow Jed around all day so that she didn't have to. Precedence. Alaria stood highest in the group so she could do, or not do, almost anything she wanted.

"Of course, Alaria," she said. Her mouth was a thin line. Clearly she didn't like being told what to do this way. Jed watched carefully as Alaria relinquished control of her half of the shield to Rhemala, but aside from a slightly tense moment between the two women and a judder in the shield, Jed didn't notice anything that could help him escape. Perhaps if he tried to force his way through the barrier while they were transferring control he could break it, but he would only be able to try it once. Tarnia stood.

"Well then, shall we?" she asked. Jed nodded to her and stood also, making his way out of the inn and heading to the markets. He would have expected to find stalls along the main road and commented on the absence. Tarnia replied that the town mayor had become fed up with hearing complaints from travellers and other residents about the crowded street and had ordered the markets set up in the Third Circle, which was still under construction. Apparently, a large amount of land had been acquired by the local merchant council at the east gates of the Second Circle, and they had begun selling small areas to local traders, setting aside others for travelling traders and merchant caravans. A portion of all profits gained went to the merchant council, who in turn gave a share of their profits to the Town Council. Eventually, Jed grew bored listening to Tarnia and Rhemala speak of the council and the fact that, surprisingly, the majority were men and therefore further surprised that men could come up with ways to make money so well and put it to good use rather than hoarding it for themselves. Jed tried to tune it out as they walked. Perhaps they should have taken the horses. It would have been over quicker that way and he would not have to listen to them gossip all the way there. Women did like to gossip, though Jed had heard women express their displeasure with that sentiment and claim that it was in fact _men_ who gossiped. Jed noted several wagons passing by on their way west. They were most likely carrying wares to Maradon. It felt good to have rejoined civilisation, however short their stay was. No matter where he went or how long he stayed in the wild lands, there really was nothing like a town full of people, laughing, arguing, and_ living_. Jed looked over the road to see two people arguing heatedly over a bracelet. On his side of the street, the Town Hall and Mayor's Residence stood proudly. Looking closely Jed could see where the original building had been placed. The stone, faded with time, looked bluer than the rest of the stones that made up the two buildings. All of the buildings in the Inner Circle had blue stones here and there, taken from the ruins of Nashebar after the Trolloc Wars. Jed wondered which of the great towers or palaces these stones had come from, what their history had been.  
>As they approached the markets they began to hear the sounds of men and women crying their wares, the smell of roasting meats, fruits, even flowers. They entered the markets and Jed staggered at the noise. There were so many people, it was terrifying. He had forgotten what it was like to walk through cities and towns; it had been so many years since he had last visited one. Jed looked back at Tarnia and Rhemala. They were sticking close to him, their eyes glued to his face with determination. Obviously they did not intend him to be lost in the melee. What a shame. Jed smiled at them, and gestured to the other side of the markets. That would be where the weapons and equipment stalls would be. The closer to the town, the more domestic, such as foods, pots and pans, the closer to the edge of town, the more weapons and spare equipment one might need while travelling through the wild. Rhemala nodded to him, shouting something to Tarnia, lost in the noise. She tugged on Tarnia's cloak, and Tarnia turned to her. Rhemala gestured to Jed, then mimed following. Tarnia nodded, and they began moving steadily through the crowds.<br>Several hours later Jed and the two women escaped the markets and began making their way back to the inn. Tarnia's hair looked frazzled and both the women's dresses were rumpled and smudged around the hem. Jed himself was rather bruised from fighting his way through the throng but, unlike his Al'sieta Sedai escorts, had thoroughly enjoyed his time in the markets. Rhemala caught him smiling.

"I don't see what you're looking so happy about," she said, glaring at him, "all you bought were some new bootlaces, fletching and an oilstone." Jed laughed.

"I missed the crowds, mistress Rhemala," he said. "It has been a long time since I have walked among so many people." Jed groaned slightly at a pain in his shoulder, rolling his left arm, "Though," he said, "I must admit, I had forgotten how impatient and rough people can be." Rhemala looked at him incredulously for a moment, before finally letting out a small laugh.

"If you were not what you are and I were of the Green I might have taken you for myself," she said, smiling slightly. Jed flinched.

"To be unwillingly bound to another, never to make my own choices again?" he asked. Rhemala and Tarnia looked at him pityingly. "That is not living," Jed whispered. He had known Warders in his time and some, few though they were, had not been bonded by choice.

Jed and the women kept to the side of the road as they made their way back to the Gnashing Barman. The sun had reached its zenith and the day was growing hotter, without a cloud in the sky. Jed loosened his collar, glad that he knew how to ignore the heat. Other people on the road were beginning to sweat and there were none too few with red faces and wet stains under their arms as they puffed along the streets. They kept to the shade as much as possible, though as this was a Borderland town, there was little shade to be had. The inn came into sight along the street, its sign hanging for all to see, a blue city in the sunset. Jed, Rhemala and Tarnia entered the shade under the balcony of the first floor with a sigh, glad to be out of the noonday heat at last. Barmaids were laying tables out in the shade in front of the building and the doors and windows were open to let the heat of the kitchens out. Tenants were filling most of the chairs but Jed saw that Alaria and the others had appropriated three tables to themselves, and all but Elena, Katerine and Salarme were enjoying the sights, watching the hawkers and peddlers pass the inn. Jed supposed that Elena and Katerine were sleeping off their exhaustion after holding his shield for most of the night. As to where the healer had gone, Jed could not say. Rashelle saw them standing there and stood, gesturing them over. Rhemala led the way, Jed walking behind her and Tarnia taking up the rear, probably keeping out of arms-reach in case he made a break for it. Namelle was sitting alone a little away from the others and they were ignoring her, their heads turned slightly away though Jed could see that they were very aware of her presence. Jed had burned out a man before and did not understand why they attempted to avoid her so carefully. The man he had burned out had been a stranger to him, but had already succumbed to the taint. Jed had tried to kill him quickly but he had fought back. Jed had just been lucky the man had not severed _him_ instead. He had not felt anything afterwards that might be the hole the women could apparently see in Namelle. But then, the two halves were different, despite their many similarities. Jed felt a hand on his arm as he was gazing at the street. He started, jerking away from the sudden touch. He looked around, realising that he must have sat while he was thinking. Rashelle was looking at him curiously.

"What were you thinking about?" she asked, examining him. Jed looked at the others. They were talking among themselves, Rhemala and Tarnia speaking quietly and occasionally shooting glances at him. Namelle was reading from a book; Jed thought it was a tome on the Ten Nations. Alaria and Tomeine were sitting two tables away from him, looking at some maps and speaking in hushed tones. Jed looked back at Rashelle.

"I was actually wondering why your sisters avoid looking at Namelle so often. It is like they are hoping that she will go away if they ignore her long enough." Jed nodded at Namelle sitting alone by the windows; she had pulled her chair away from the middle table and was turned away from them now. Rashelle's eyes darkened. She looked upset.

"I do not like it either, but even I cannot help trying to avoid her whenever I can," Rashelle started. She licked her lips, then continued, "As I understand it, men cannot sense when another man can channel just by looking at him. The Red Ajah have studied this in an effort to find better ways of locating male channellers who are born with the spark before they come into their abilities. For women, it is different. We can sense another woman who can channel as soon as we see her, though bringing the ability to the surface is a lot harder. It is the same when the ability to channel has been burned out or when an Aes Sedai has been Stilled, or severed I suppose." Rashelle looked at Namelle and shivered. "I can feel the absence of _saidar_ in her, like a hole in her mind. It terrifies me; it terrifies us all." Jed thought he understood, though her description did nothing to comfort him. She was speaking in hushed tones to him of what she felt in another. She looked nauseated. If it was this bad for her, and she was only feeling it second-hand from Namelle, what would it be like for the woman herself? Jed looked at Namelle sadly. If he didn't escape he would find out. Perhaps it was all he deserved for severing her. Rashelle turned back to Jed. She was looking at him in that possessive way again. It made his skin crawl.

"What will you do when we have Gentled you?" she asked bluntly. Jed blinked at her, too shocked for words. He felt anger beginning to stir within him and he unconsciously strained to reach the source through the shield. He bent it inward slightly and Tarnia and Rhemala whipped around to face him. Jed ignored them though, glaring at Rashelle angrily. He managed to stop himself from trying harder. He did not want to give them reason to be more cautious, not until the time was right.

"What makes you believe I intend to let you gentle me?" he asked through gritted teeth. Rashelle smiled slightly, though her eyes watched his carefully.

"You will not escape," she said, examining her fingernails, "so you might as well begin planning for your life afterwards." Jed sat there quietly, not letting anything show on his face.

"I will not be allowed to leave the Tower, will I?" he asked. Rashelle shook her head.

"No, you won't. You will be kept in the Tower for your own safety. You must understand that most of the men who leave after their trial attempt to do themselves harm, throwing themselves from the walls of the city, the bridges or simply disappearing." Rashelle shook her head, looking out at the street as she spoke. "We try to discover ways of keeping them alive, setting them tasks to keep their minds occupied, pushing them to find ways to live. Sometimes sisters find women to sleep with them, to marry them. A family would give a man a reason to live if nothing else will." Jed snorted. Rashelle glanced at him.

"You're forgetting revenge," he said matter-of-factly. "If anything, a man might want to repay you for what you have taken from him." Rashelle frowned.

"Yes," she said. "Some...more than a few have attempted to harm us, but none ever succeed." She frowned at him sternly. "I hope you do not intend to exact vengeance on us. You seem more learned than others that the Red Ajah have brought to the Tower to be tried. Almost as if you have had decades of experience." Jed looked at her sharply, but she turned her head away so he could not see her face. He though she was smiling by the sound of her voice.

"But of course that would be impossible," she said, still not facing him.

"If you succeed and I am Gentled," Jed said stiffly, "I will find a way to escape the Tower."

"And what will you do then?" Rashelle asked, turning her head to face him again. She looked angry again. Did all women swing from mood to mood like this or just this one?

"Come back to the Blight," he said. "If I no longer care about living, at the least I will be angry. Killing Shadowspawn seems to be as good a way to die as any." Jed smiled, looking at some children playing in the street. "Who knows," he added, "maybe I will end up in the stories alongside the heroes of legend." Rashelle grimaced and shook her head disappointedly.

"A waste of life and talent," Rashelle replied. "Wouldn't you rather make a difference in the world, a difference that didn't involve going mad and killing indiscriminately?" Jed frowned, confused.

"Wait a moment," he said, "I thought we were talking about my life after I have been gentled."

"We are," Rashelle stated angrily. "_Men!_ You never think! Losing ones will to live; not caring for your life or the lives of those around you _is_ madness. And not just that," she jabbed a finger into his stomach painfully, "it's selfish!" Jed swelled angrily.

"You are one to talk about selfishness; here you are saying that losing my will to live is selfish when you are the ones who will be taking it from me! Did you even think about that while you were busy insulting the choices I'd make after having a part of myself ripped away?" Jed paused angrily to draw breath. Calming himself he asked a question which had burned in his mind for as long as he had channelled.

"Why do you sever every man you find?" he asked. Rashelle looked at him incredulously for a moment but he stopped her before she could answer.

"What I mean is," he said carefully, "you have me shielded. You can obviously tie off your shields the way I have with others I have found. If you can do this, why do you not shield men instead of severing us and keeping us to die slowly in your Tower?"

"We cannot keep every man we capture shielded. It would be an impossible task. They...you would have to be watched every hour of every day for the rest of your lives, the shields checked and rewoven to make sure you cannot escape." Rashelle paused. "I don't know how it works for men but we cannot maintain a shield indefinitely, and no sister would risk tying off a shield and leaving a man capable of breaking it. There are no Aes Sedai left who even have the strength to do what you are suggesting, let alone those who know how." Rashelle watched him thoughtfully for a moment, before Tarnia pulled her attention away and they began a discussion, too low for Jed to understand anything but the occasional word.

Jed thought about what she'd said. It made sense in its own way, if the one who understood it had never successfully spun a shield that could not be broken, as he had. He looked back on the last time he had created a permanent shield. Even he did not remember how many times he had spun those webs of Spirit, in and out, in increasingly intricate patterns. That last shield he had made had been a masterwork, a tapestry of Spirit. As he understood it, the Al'sieta Sedai no longer experimented with new webs as they once had, merely maintaining and passing down the knowledge of what they had to their successors. He had not been sure until his capture, but a few snatches of information gleaned from the Reds here and there was slowly confirming his suspicions. The Reds often forgot that he was there, or maybe they simply believed him too ignorant of their ways to understand.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Salarme returned in the late afternoon with a large man coming into his middle years with brown hair and tanned skin. His name was Rammon Delvin and he had been recommended by Captain Azada. Delvin led a small band of twenty men, merchant guards who had left their previous employer because the man had wagered his profits on a game of Stones and had been unable to pay Delvin and his men when he lost. Delvin said that the idiot had been lucky not to lose his wagons and supplies. The man would pick up eventually but in the mean time Delvin was out of gold. Delvin had been very interested to meet the Jed and had been impressed that Jed had apparently fought off an entire Fist of trollocs. Jed angrily replied that a lot of good men had lost their lives in that raid and had stormed off in a fury, or at least that was what Delvin believed. Jed wouldn't have put on such a show but for the fact that the Al'sieta Sedai kept insisting that something worse than Katerine would happen to him if he gave them away. The possibilities swam through Jed's mind as he turned in that night, but other than that it might have something to do with the incident in Namelle's room the night before he could not think what would be worse than Katerine beating him every night until they reached the Tower.

Something Rhemala had said earlier in the day nagged at his memory as he was falling asleep, something about bonding him if she were not Red. _A Red would never bond a man,_ he thought. As he drifted off another part of him thought, _but a Green would._

* * *

><p>In her room Namelle practiced the forms Jed had demonstrated to her before they reached Jaroncen, slowly moving from one form to another, smooth motions. She had never before noticed how much more like a dance the sword forms were than a method for killing. Slowly, she swung her right sword, the <em>Aran'mandarb<em> as Jed said it was called in the Nobles Tongue, in an arc from her left to her right, keeping her eyes forward and her legs poised, flowing with the movement of the sword. As the blade moved horizontally away from her body her torso was exposed, and she carefully brought up her _Osan'mandarb_ up to come to a stop in the defensive position Jed called Serpent's Lair. She lost herself in the forms, thinking about how Jed had corrected her mistakes and adjusted the forms to better suit her. With her hips and breasts, he had said, she could not fully master the forms as a man could, even with years of training. Women, he had said, stood differently to men, moved differently, reacted differently, and a woman who had always had the Power to defend herself before would come to rely on that advantage more and more in combat, forgetting how to defend herself as one who could not channel would. He had told her that he must adjust the forms as he taught her so that she could learn to defend herself in a new way. As she was the first woman he knew of to ever be trained in the use of blades she would hold the first and, perhaps, only female version of the sword forms. But before that, he had said, she needed to learn to quicken her reaction time and learn to be more aware of the world around her down to the smallest movements. He had then proceeded to blindfold her and begin throwing small stones at her from different directions, telling her to listen for the sound of his feet as he moved and learn to discern one sound from another.  
>She stopped practicing with the dual swords and sat down in the middle of the room, closing her eyes and listening to the sounds of the inn. After a while she began to hear the sounds of people in other rooms, a faint creaking as someone moved along the corridor below her, the rustle of sheets in the room next to hers as the person sleeping inside turned over in his sleep. Somewhere above she heard small gasps and the creaking of bed springs and immediately she opened her eyes, cheeks suffused with heat. She returned to the forms, working furiously and breathing loudly enough to block out any other sound but the swish of her swords slicing through the air and her breath until she was too tired to continue. She put up her swords next to the bed frame, where she could reach them easily if there was trouble. Jed had told her to always be alert, with her weapons close at hand. She splashed water on her face from the washstand and looked over at the pouch she had filled with herbs bought in the markets early that morning. She had asked the peddler what they did before buying and he had explained each one to her, warning her of which were not best combined. She had been having trouble sleeping since her Stilling and had bought a sleeping herb from the peddler. He had told her how much to take and when. Namelle walked over to the pouch and opened it, taking out a small packet tied with string and opened it enough to take a pinch of the herb within and drop it into a glass of water on the bedside table. The dried sleeping herb slowly disintegrated in the water as she stirred it. She got into bed and drank the water before laying back and waiting for sleep to come. She thought about Rashelle, and how she could stop the woman from bonding Jed after his gentling. She shivered; he would face what she had within a month, though he would be tried for the crime of channelling tainted <em>saidin<em> first. As her eyes began to droop she chuckled at the absurdity of a trial. She had never cared before but now she thought about how stupid it was. They could not help being what they were, or wanting to continue despite the taint, so why were they all tried as criminals, even the ones who came to them looking for an end to what they could do? Namelle giggled again as the herb did its work, and she fell asleep.

* * *

><p>The next morning Jed woke to find Rashelle standing at the end of his bed, watching him. He jumped back in alarm and she let out a soft laugh.<p>

"What are you doing in here?" he demanded crossly, ashamed at having been off guard.

Rashelle stopped laughing and fixed him with a stern look.

"I'm holding your shield today," she said.

"That does not explain why you are in my room. Were you watching me sleep?" Rashelle flushed red for an instant before that Al'sieta Sedai calm settled over her.

"I came to wake you," she said "We are leaving as soon as the guards are ready. I suggest you dress yourself, quickly." Jed was startled. They were leaving already? Jed made to get out of the bed, but when Rashelle made no move to leave he coughed significantly. She laughed at him and left the room. _Bloody Green Ajah_, he thought as he pulled his trousers on and buckled his sword onto his hip. Five minutes later, Jed emerged from his room to find Rashelle and Tomeine waiting for him. Of course, he thought, she couldn't hold his shield on her own. Tomeine looked at him as if he was plotting something and gestured him down the corridor in front of her. As he headed for the stairs and began his descent Rashelle came up beside him.

"You mentioned the other day that you have fought alongside the Borderlanders in the Blight. I'm curious, have you ever fought with a Warder?" she asked.

"Yes, with and against. This is not the first time the Al'sieta Sedai have pursued me, though they did not catch me last time." Jed saw no need to lie about being found and chased before though he did not want to mention that he had been caught once, but had escaped easily since the woman had been alone. That would put this group even more on edge than they were with him. He could tell by looking at them that they knew he was different to others they had chased. They were starting to see him more as a person than a thing to be caught and dealt with.

Rashelle grimaced at his title for her and any woman wearing the Serpent Ring but was obviously willing to let it go to get the answers she wanted.

"So you know their capabilities as warriors," she said.

Jed nodded as they left the inn and made their way to the stables. "They are stronger and faster, able to endure more than other men. 'Gifts'," he said sarcastically, "given in return for their loyalty to a...well, one of you." Rashelle looked at him carefully.

"You don't like the Warder bond?" she asked.

"I admit that the abilities that come with it would be an advantage in battle, but the cost is too great."

Rashelle frowned. "What cost are you talking about?" Her eyes suddenly dawned with realisation. "You mean that the Warder can feel his Aes Sedai and she can feel him? But that is an advantage in its own right; the Warder will know when she is in danger and what she is feeling and she will know his. In combat they need to be able to know each other. It's why so many young men come to the Tower to become Warders."

Jed laughed as they entered the stables and the smell of hay filled his nostrils. "No, I mean that the Al'sieta Sedai can control her Warder through the bond. What about all those men who have no choice, forced to serve as a Warder for their skills?" Rashelle had nothing to say on that.

Jed readied his horse and introduced himself to Delvin's men. They were a rough group, some with scars on their faces and arms but all with clean uniforms in brown and grey colours. The image of a snarling bear head stood out on their breastplates. Their armour was painted grey and was worn their shirts and breeches, though they were donning overcoats. One of the men, Jarim he'd said his name was, noticed Jed's interest.

"We smear paint our armour, anything that reflects light but our swords, to prevent the light reflecting from us and revealing our position to others," he said. Jed nodded in understanding as he mounted his horse.

The women were already sitting on their horses, waiting impatiently for the guards. Now that they had guards with them they could either reveal Jed and themselves for what they really were and most likely cause a whole lot of big problems, or Jed could take his place as one of their guards. They would be keeping two of their number with him at all times though, maintaining his shield. They had already decided on the excuse that they had been fond of their previous guards and now that Jed was the only one left they wanted to keep him safe. Jed didn't like it; it made him sound like a child but he had no choice. Jed mounted Freedom, and the guards followed suit, mounting their own horses as the women turned their horses from the stable yard and led them around the side of the inn. The morning sun shone over the horizon as they left the town, riding two by two with the cart full of supplies in the middle. The women rode before and behind it, the men taking up the rear, all save for Jed who rode next to Rashelle in front of the wagon, which had replaced the cart they had used before. Once they cleared the town's borders, Delvin sent two men forward of the group by five hundred paces with seven men in front of the women, seven behind and the remaining four spilt on either side of the wagon. Delvin himself remained at the head of the group with his men, dropping back occasionally to speak with Jed. They rode for most of the day, stopping at midday to eat and rest the horses before pushing onward. By the time the sun began to set, their shadows stretched out before them on the road and they were several leagues from Jaroncen. Delvin called his men back from the head of the group and suggested that they make camp for the night in a hollow just off the Border Road. Alaria resisted at first but Delvin pointed out that there was not another good place to camp for miles and they would have to ride well into the night to reach the next one. Alaria agreed reluctantly, wanting to get as far as possible before having to stop but listening to the guardsman's advice. That in itself was surprising, but looking around Jed noted how tired the other Al'sieta Sedai looked and he felt wearied to the bone after riding all day. His time in captivity had not served him well or he would not be so tired.

Delvin led them to the hollow, his men moving in to investigate. There were freshly cut logs in a pile under an overhang of rock that might once have been a building and signs of a fire in the middle, a day old now. It was custom along the Border Road for those making camp for the night in one of these hollows to leave wood for the next weary travellers. Not all did so but enough that the piles hardly ever went dry. As they set up camp Delvin posted guards around the chest-high stone wall that surrounded the campsite. It had rained the night before and though the sun had been hotter than usual for this region, even in summer, the logs and tinder was damp enough that lighting a fire proved difficult. Jed sat a few paces from the pile of branches in the middle of the hollow while one of Delvin's men, Agirar, valiantly attempted to start a fire with his flint, producing sparks that would not light the damp wood. Jed looked sideways at Tomeine who was glaring crossly from Agirar to Alaria. Jed chuckled softly but his mirth faded as he realised that he was going to be as cold as the rest of them if they couldn't light a fire soon. He looked at Rashelle, who was sitting on his right on a blanket laid out on the grass. She was looking at the pile of wood as well, an irritated expression plastered on her face. Jed watched as she turned her head, looking for Alaria before gazing back at the fire. Suddenly the tinder beneath Agirar's flint burst into flame and the man jumped back in surprise. Alaria and the other Al'sieta Sedai all turned as one, looking from Rashelle to the fire, which had begun burning cheerfully. The guardsmen all laughed uproariously at Agirar's shocked expression and one of them called out to him to be more careful with how much tinder he used next time. Agirar grumbled that he'd used the same as he always did as he packed away his flint and walked off to fetch more firewood.

Namelle and Elena had begun preparing the evening meal, much to their disgust, putting the kettle over the fire to stew; they were soon joined by Enkazim, one of the guardsmen, who all of the guardsmen said could make boots taste like a king's feast. Jarim and several of the others came to Jed while the meal was cooking, asking him to train with them. Jed, playing his role as a guardsman, turned to Rashelle and asked permission to join the guardsmen. Rashelle gave her permission with a small smile that unnerved Jed more than a past flame appearing before him could and watched as Jed trained with the guardsmen, giving them advice on fighting on foot and from horseback. The guardsmen were good but had been trained to fight as a unit, tending to move together and work as a group. This was an effective means of fighting off almost any attacker, but on their own they were much less skilled. Jed taught them some of the most simple and useful forms in defence, so that they could defend themselves if separated from the larger force. By the time the meal was ready the guardsmen had fine sheens of sweat on their arms and faces. Namelle and Enkazim wouldn't let them anywhere near the fire until they had washed their faces and hands.

Elena had given up somewhere along the way and was sitting stony-faced by the fire, glaring occasionally at Enkazim. When Jed asked, Tarnia said that Enkazim had told her to stop adding spices and that maybe she had best stick to what she knew rather than attempt to cook a meal that would most likely burn them from the inside out. Rashelle was listening and laughed as she described Elena's reaction, throwing her spoon at Enkazim's head before stalking away. Namelle passed around the bowls herself, coming over to Jed and giving his one to him personally. Before she left Jed asked her if she wanted to train anytime soon but Namelle refused, flushing when Jarim looked up from his meal at them curiously.

Rashelle caught Jed's attention and began asking him questions about his life before travelling to the Borderlands, what it had been like living in the Land between Two Rivers and if he had left anybody behind. Jed answered carefully, about how he'd come to love a girl in his village and later learned that she felt the same for him. How he'd come to realise that he had certain skills nobody else had and decided to leave. Jed brought out a gold broach in the shape of a dove in flight and showed it to Rashelle, Tarnia and several of the guardsmen who were also listening to his story. She had given it to him after his decision to leave, to remember her in his travels and to bring him home one day, to her.

The guardsmen began to drift off in other directions but Rashelle and Tarnia leaned in, listening. Rashelle looked sad and sympathetic, as did Tarnia. Jed didn't mind.

After further prodding from Rashelle he explained how when he'd come back he'd found that years had passed and everybody he'd known had changed and grown. He thought Rashelle's eyes widened in realisation by that point but he no longer cared. The girl he'd loved had slowly given up hope that he would ever return, and married another man, one of Jed's early childhood friends. They had had children, five of them, two of whom had had children of their own by the time Jed returned. Rashelle whispered an oath under her breath and Tarnia stared at Jed, frozen with shock. Jed didn't see any of it, immersed in his memories. He kept talking, explaining how he'd not known so much time had passed because he had moved from region to region, never staying long enough to remember or be remembered by anyone. He had not seen the years going by until he returned home. Jed laughed bitterly as he spoke of how he'd returned one day to find a room in the Spring Inn, which had new owners. Jed had walked through the village, confused that he did not know any of the people around him. When an old man had called out his name from one of the houses, a house which had belonged to a friend of his when he'd left the district, he'd not known who the man had been. It had shocked him when he learned that this _was_ his friend. After that, Jed said, he'd begun recognising other faces as they gathered round. All exclaiming over how Jed looked just like a man they had once known, who had left the village over six decades before for no reason that they could understand, leaving behind his family and the woman he had been betrothed to. Rashelle's eyes were wet as she looked at him and Tarnia nodded slowly to herself, her eyes haunted as if she knew what he had gone through.

"What happened to her?" Rashelle asked as she handed back the broach. Jed took it and didn't answer right away, looking at its design.

"She had died," Jed said, "eleven years before I went back." Rashelle sucked in a breath, looking at him silently, a tear running down her cheek.

Jed examined the broach, remembering. He had run to her house as fast as he could, the cries of his friends fading behind him as he ran through the streets. He had pounded on the door of her house until a man opened it, a man with her hair but other than that a perfect image of his childhood friend. Jed had shown the broach to the man and he had let Jed in, taking him to Jed's friend who had been sitting in the front room playing with his grandchildren. He had taken one look at Jed and started muttering about ghosts and spirits until his son managed to calm him down. The old man had asked if Jed was any relation to a man he'd once known; a man named Jedwyn al'Caan.

Rashelle gave a start at Jed's full name; he had not told anyone that name in a long time but no longer saw any reason to hide it.

The old man had recognised the broach and knew the man who stood before him for who he was. Jed explained that his friend had begged for forgiveness for marrying his love. He had done as Jed asked, looking after her, keeping her from trouble, arguing with her, hating her for years. It was not until years later that he realised he was in love with her. She had begun to lose hope that Jed would ever return, heartbroken, becoming thinner and more isolated. He had stayed with her, helping her as best he could. They had married and had children when she finally accepted that Jed was not coming back and realised that his friend had been there for her all those years, though Jed's friend believed that she had never truly given up hope that Jed would one day return. Sometimes, he had said, she had gone out to the bridge over the Spring Waters and stood there for hours just staring into the stream as it flowed beneath her.

Jed saw the questioning looks on Tarnia and Rashelle's faces, and on Elena and Namelle who had also come to listen, and explained that the bridge had been where they had first kissed, when they were sixteen winters old. Jed smiled slightly as he explained how they'd both been switched soundly by the Wise Woman and their parents and been watched carefully by every girl and woman in the village after that, lest they do more than kiss. Jed's smile faded as he looked down at the broach. She had given it to him in exchange for the promise that he would come back once he had found what he was looking for. Jed looked up and told them that she hadn't known he could channel but he thought she might have suspected. He had saved her from drowning in the Waterwood, the first time he had used the Power, a few weeks before and had fallen ill twelve days later with a fever which lasted mere hours. Jed explained that his friend had told him that no matter what, she had believed that somewhere he was still out there, refusing to consider that he might have died years before. Jed had left Aemon's Field for the last time a day later, after the older men and women had begun to realise that he was Jedwyn al'Caan and not a grandson and begun demanding to know how he hadn't changed and what kind of creature was he? Tarnia hesitantly laid a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her, startled by her gesture.

"I think that I can understand what you have gone through more than most, though not how it is even possible that you have lasted this long," she said.

"What do you mean?" Jed asked. Tarnia took a strand of her greying hair and swept it back over her ear.

"I once had a family, but unlike most Sisters I did not forget them after becoming Aes Sedai." Tarnia drew a deep breath and said, "I trained as a Novice and Accepted for fifteen years before I was raised to the Shawl and it was another ten before I thought to visit my home in Farashelle. Everyone I knew had changed. My parents had died and my brothers and sisters looked so old compared to me, yet I was the oldest." Tarnia stopped, smiling sadly at Jed. For a moment her ageless face seemed to lift and Jed saw someone who had seen decades pass, more than decades. Then it was gone and the ageless face was back. The guards were all falling asleep around the fire and Rashelle had already moved under her blankets, as had the other Al'sieta Sedai, all save for Elena and Rhemala who watched Jed, though their eyes drooped sleepily. Tarnia had moved off and was getting into her blankets. Jed turned his head, surprised at the camp's sudden weariness. Even the guards on duty were slumped against the wall! Namelle stood up and walked over to him from her blankets, looking around at the sleeping men and women smugly. Jed heard a thump behind him and turned quickly. He found nothing, but then saw Tarnia laying half in and half out of her blankets, completely unconscious. Jed turned back to Namelle, now standing in front of him, smiling triumphantly.

"What has happened?" he asked, alarmed.

"I put a sleeping herb in the stew," Namelle replied calmly. Jed's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"You did _what?_" he yelled. Namelle held up her hands hurriedly, her eyes wide.

"Not yours!" she said quickly. "I separated yours before I put the herb in the stew. They'll sleep for the rest of the night," she finished. Jed just stared at her, mouth open. _She did _what?

He finally managed to compose himself though he was still shocked. Namelle looked up at him fearfully, her hands twisting around a piece of cloth. Jed looked around the camp. Elena and Rhemala were unconscious as well, sprawled against one another where they were sitting facing Jed. He turned back to Namelle.

"Why did you do this?" he asked her warily. She looked down and muttered that they should get going if they want to be ahead of the others before morning but Jed grabbed her arm as she tried to turn away and pulled her around to face him.

"Why?" he demanded, staring into her eyes. She sighed.

"They were going to give you to Rashelle once you had been gentled," she said after a moment, looking up at him from beneath her hair, biting her lip worriedly. He looked at her questioningly for a moment before his mind fit the pieces together. Rashelle's behaviour towards him over the last week, the argument in Namelle's room, the constant questioning and probing; asking him about...

"She was going to bond you as her Warder as soon as you've been gentled," Namelle said quickly. Jed froze.

"And what if I refused?" he asked dangerously, anger beginning to stir within him.

Namelle looked uncomfortably away from him. "She was going to bond you anyway. I couldn't let her go through with it," she said in a rush, "they said that I would not be allowed to learn from you after you were bonded and since you were obviously going to attempt to escape before we reached the Tower I would never be allowed near you!" She clamped her mouth shut and blushed crimson.

Jed's face darkened with every word. "They were going to let her bond me if I tried to escape before we reach the Tower?"

"Yes," Namelle said. With difficulty Jed regained control of his anger but glared around the camp at the Al'sieta Sedai. _Those manipulating, scheming..._ he thought angrily. "I've packed food and supplies onto Katerine's mare and readied our horses," she said pleadingly.

Jed's head whipped around to face her. "You want to come with me?" he asked incredulously. She nodded.

"I need you to teach me. I don't want to die, I _need_ this. Please," she begged quietly.

Jed stared at her for a moment, and then nodded: "Very well."

Quickly, they prepared their horses and Katerine's mare. Jed grinned as he thought of Katerine's face when she woke in the morning and found he had stolen her horse. He laughed loudly and Namelle grinned at him weakly. As they mounted their horses Jed suddenly realised that he was free. He was _free!_ He reached out to the Source and grasped the Power, no shield blocking his path. Sweet _saidin_ rushed into him, mountains of ice and fire scorching his soul and filling him with life. The land around him grew brighter, colours deeper but no less beautiful in the night. He laughed as he held onto the Power. As they rode away from the hollow Jed looked back and, as an act of defiance and for the pure joy of angering them, Jed spun flows of Fire into the earth at the entrance to the hollow. Jed and Namelle rode away into the night, leaving the campsite and the Red Ajah behind. In the earth at the entrance to the hollow the grass and earth had been scorched into the shape of a black teardrop, known to the world as the Dragon's Fang.


End file.
